Total Drama National Tour
by Pastrinator64
Summary: 24 teenage contestants will take challenges based in states across the USA. Each challenge will be held in famous cities, landmarks, and other destinations, and be designed specifically towards whatever may come their way. These teens will endure pain, drama, friendships, and lots of physically-demanding tasks. Who will survive the entire tour and win the 1,000,000 bucks? Find out!
1. The New Faces of Total Drama

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with a brand new Total Drama fanfic! This is my very first, and I do hope that you enjoy!**

**I must clear up somethings first, though.**

**First of all, of these contestants are seventeen, so always keep that in mind.**

**Secondly, this is season 6.5; this is because season 6 is already coming out and sooner or later there'll be a season 7 I'm sure, so I don't want to end up having a season that already exists.**

**Thirdly, there will be 24 contestants instead of 22 this season. This is basically the amount of all original characters plus the two new ones from season 3. I'm just changing things up a bit.**

**Anyway, I invite you to sit back, relax, and watch as 24 brand new contestants enter the world of Total Drama National Tour!**

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_TOTAL DRAMA NATIONAL TOUR_

A fanfic by **Pastrinator64**

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Chapter 1: The New Faces of Total Drama

Chris McLean awoke early one special Saturday morning. It was the morning of Total Drama National Tour. Walking around in the five-star room that he slept in, ate in, and secretly watched funny cat videos in, Chris started to get ready for the morning. He combed his luxurious black hair, trimmed his eyebrows, and polished his teeth for a perfect smile. Then he put on his traditional grayish-blue jacket and jeans, and then slipped on his sleek black shoes. He even tied that quirky little bag around his neck.

After checking himself in the mirror proudly, Chris nodded and then checked his watch. It was 6:48, so he still had over an hour until the twenty-four seventeen-year-old contestants were supposed to all have arrived. So, to pass the time, he walked over to his mini fridge and pulled out a Coke, then sat down in front of his laptop and opened up a new tab. He went to YouTube and immediately started watching some more videos of cats running into vacuums.

But then, roughly ten minutes later, there was a sudden knock on his door and Chris jumped. He threw his blanket over the laptop and then stomped towards the door.

"Chef, how many times did I say NOT to bug me during my "personal hours"?!"

But as soon as he opened the door he was greeted by a high-pitched squeal and a crushing bear hug, and his Coke splashed all over his pants from the impact.

"CHRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSS!"

A few confusing seconds later, Chris finally got himself free of this person's grip. Rather than finding the uber-buff Chef, he found himself staring at a seventeen-year-old girl with a head of shortly-cut brunette hair. She was wearing a skin-tight tank top, skinny jeans and brown flip flops. Her pale green eyes kept darting around quickly, observing everything nearby like she couldn't get enough. A few moments later she just walked right into Chris's room and said,

"Wow! Look at all this!" she said as she twirled around in a circle to look at all the luxurious items around the room.

Chris ran forward and grabbed her arm to pull her out of the room.

"Hey, nobody's supposed to BE in here!"

But before he could stop the girl, she moved towards his laptop and threw the blanket off, getting an obvious glimpse of the video screen, which showed a still image of a cat leaping over a vacuum with its back arched. She clasped her hands to her mouth and squealed again.

"OMG! You watch "Cats vs. Vacs" too?"

Chris threw the blanket back over the laptop and steered her out of the room.

"OUT! GET OUT!"

The moment she was out he slammed the door and leaned against it, breathing heavily. He sighed and sat down on the ground, leaning up against the door with his back. He looked down at his pants, which were positively soaked with Coke, and then at the thick Persian rug—$790,817.00—on the floor before him. It too was stained. That was over three quarters of a million dollars gone down the drain. Suddenly, he jumped as there was another knock on the door, this one louder.

Chris, boiling with anger, stood up and faced the door.

"Alright, that's it!" he screamed at the door. "You've ruined my pants," he slammed his fist on the door. "You've ruined my RUG," he pounded again. "AND YOU'RE RUINING MY—"

But then the door opened and he didn't get a chance to slam his fist once more. Standing there was the massive figure of Chef Hatchet. He looked in a VERY bad mood and was standing there in a very frilly purple nightshirt.

"Chris, I can't sleep!" he boomed, towering over Chris and shaking a calloused fist. "That annoying little cupcake keeps sneaking into the train! I'm gonna have to work her into the ground if you can't do nothing about it!"

With a sharp ring, Chef whipped out a gleaming hatchet. Chris leaned backward so he couldn't see his startled reflection in the blade's flat edge. He put his hand on Chef's hairy arm and pushed it back down to lower the cleaver to a relatively safe distance.

"I'll take care of it!" he muttered, walking past Chef into the hall of the train car.

He walked into the dining car and continued on into the next hallway. There was a thick steel door there, and when he stood in front of it he grasped the handle and slid it to the side. Before even stepping outside he saw the enthusiastic seventeen-year-old chick standing about ten feet away, and she was gabbing away with another girl. She had flawless skin, golden hair, and crystal-like amber eyes. She was also wearing a skin-tight tank top and short-shorts that were cut off pretty much as close to her butt as was legal. There were pink high heels on her feet that were glittering so bright that Chris had to look away.

Suddenly, they both noticed Chris standing there in the doorway and they squealed. They ran up to him and immediately started talking his ear off.

"LIKE, OHMYGOSH THIS IS SO AMAZING!" screamed the first girl.

"ISN'T CHRIS THE MOST BESTEST, CUTEST, HANDSOMEST EVER, GRACE?!" screamed the second.

"OHMYGOSH YES! KELSEY, LET'S HUG HIM!"

Both Grace and Kelsey threw themselves around Chris and hugged him tight, shrieking in his ear. It only lasted five seconds, thankfully, and then they both skipped happily back to their spot ten feet away from the train. Chris just stood there cringing, his hair in a tangled mess. He quickly whipped out his slick mirror and stared at his own reflection. He hastily took out a comb and attacked his hair, smoothing down the mess wherever he could. When he wasn't satisfied, he quickly called out for his hair and makeup crew, who rushed to his side immediately, straightened his hair, and then left in less than fifteen seconds.

Chris, now as handsome as ever, completely ignored the overexcited girl and the fashion freak. He stepped back inside the train car and headed to his room, shut and LOCKED the door, and continued on with watching viral videos in peace. The time was now 7:01 AM, so he had just under an hour left before the rest of the contestants should be arrived.

Even so, that didn't stop more contestants from arriving annoyingly early. Chris had just gotten up a few minutes later because he was out of Coke, so he took a lazy stroll through the train cars to the kitchen. Once he had grabbed a six-pack and brought it back, he passed by the entrance door of the train and heard a car door open

When he looked outside, he could see a very bored-looking boy stepping out of an expensive, black, golden-wheeled Ferrari, carrying a single suitcase. He was average-sized for a sixteen-year old, had neatly-combed black hair, smooth peach-colored skin and plain gray eyes. He was also wearing drab, gray clothes. As the car drove away, the boy walked forward dragging his suitcase, a dull expression on his face. When walked straight past the two whispering, squealing girls and stopped by Chris. The host held out a hand and said,

"Hello, Clarence. Looking formal as ever, huh?"

Clarence smiled politely and shook Chris's hand casually.

"Good morning, Chris McLean. I look forward to becoming acquainted with you..."

He turned back around and walked back into the area with Kelsey and Grace, set his suitcase in a corner, and sat on it. He pulled out the book _Moby Dick _and began to read quietly. Not even ten seconds later, another contestant arrived in a cool sports car. The kid stepped out of the car after parking it, dragging about four different suitcases plus two large duffel bags behind him. Clarence stood up and walked over to help him, but the kid backed away quickly and said irritably,

"Woah, woah, buddy! I've got some delicate stuff in these! I'm just gonna carry it myself, ok?"

He marched past Chris without a second glance, and Chris got a good look of him. He had short, curly black hair, pale brown eyes, and was average in size, just like Clarence. He wore a black T-shirt with the DC logo printed in magnificent gold stitching. As he was passing, Chris grinned and said,

"So, Greg, how're your collections coming along?"

Greg rolled his eyes and replied,

"They're fantastic, thank you..."

He walked proudly into the greeting area and set down his bags carefully. Grace, who had just run over and hugged him excitedly, bumped the two duffel bags suddenly, and the clink of metal could be heard inside. The result was Greg pushing her back violently and hissing slightly, crouching down at his beloved possessions to protect them. Chris watched at a safe distance, greatly amused. He could already tell that it was going to be a great season.

Chris wandered amongst the four contestants, grappling onto bits of conversation and then leaving them again. Greg went ON and ON about all his geeky collections; he talked about his collections of real movie props used in Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the Batman movies. It was so impressive that Chris had forgotten to pay attention—he could have cared less. He left once Greg started to monologue on the history of movie prop production in China. As he was walking away, he got a sudden image of Noah, which made him smirk to himself.

About ten minutes later the fifth contestant arrived in a beat up pickup truck. He parked the car and then squeezed out; it was hard because of how big this dude was. He came out carrying a colossal gym bag and a stuffed backpack. This guy was a seriously massive dude, and had rippling muscles all over, making him a complete and utter brickhouse. His black jersey with the number 64 in white was ripped at the stomach, revealing a pretty impressive six-pack. Unlike his jersey, his blue gym shorts were kept perfectly. He had a deep tan, beefy arms, and moss-green eyes. Additionally, his features were chiseled, making him look like a magnificent living statue carved by the finest of sculptors. Said brickhouse stomped his way up to Chris and then looked down, towering over him at a staggering height of 6'5".

"Chris," he said simply, his voice gruff and low.

"Peter," replied Chris, lifting a hand.

Peter's freakishly huge hand shook Chris's, nearly crushing it, and then he walked past, leaving Chris to rub his reddening fingers.

"Geez, strong grip." he muttered, looking back at Peter as he was walking away.

Grace and Kelsey caught glimpse of Peter's towering figure easily, and they squealed as they ran over to him. They both hugged him and started swooning over him. All Peter did was look down at them without saying a word, and then allowed them to steer him away from Greg and Clarence.

The time was now 7:11. Ten more minutes passed before the next contestant came; they pulled up in a dusty SUV, and it was another guy. He stepped out of the vehicle carrying two suitcases in one arm and what looked like a banjo case in the other. He was tall, strong-looking (but not a brickhouse like Peter), had ruffled brown hair, cool brown eyes, plus a friendly grin.

"Hey, how's everybody doing?" he declared, looking around at the small amount of people nearby.

He walked up to Chris and they high-fived.

"Chris McLean, nice to meet ya, partner!" he said excitedly, grinning broadly.

Chris smiled back and said,

"Adrian, nice to see you too!"

Adrian walked past Chris and entered the waiting area with the rest of the contestants, saying hi to each and every one of them and shaking hands. He set his stuff down and occupied himself by pulling out his well-kept banjo and tuning it. As Chris was watching him, somebody suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and he gave a jump, whirling around to see who had just touched him.

There was a puny seventeen-year-old girl looking up at him from behind. She had a massive triangle of red hair on her head, nimble arms, legs, fingers, and toes. There was a natural tan in her skin, and her blindingly bright green eyes stood out from the rest of her. She was wearing a camo T-shirt and shorts, plus a pair of sandals.

"Heehee! I got you! I sure got you!" she said quickly, giggling loudly. "You didn't hear me sneak up, did you? Yeah, that's because I'm, like, SUPER stealthy!"

Chris looked down at her with caution and slowly held out his hand.

"Hannah, hello..."

Hannah grabbed his hand and shook it vigorously, grinning broadly, showing that she was missing her two front teeth.

"Man, I am SO crazed for the season to start! Ha, season makes me think of hunting season! I love hunting season! I'm the stealthiest hunter of all time! Woohoo!" she declared proudly, finally letting go of Chris's hand.

She quick ran back around the train and grabbed a single suitcase from behind it, then came back with it. She set the suitcase down hurriedly and then unzipped it, suddenly bringing out a Remington Model 770 Stainless Camo rifle, which she pointed with a jerk at Chris, who ducked to avoid his head being blown off.

"Impressive, isn't it?" she said, bouncing it in her arms. "I call her _Killer Kim_."

"Watch where you're pointing that thing!" was all Chris had to say on the subject.

Hannah put the impressive hunting rifle away in her suitcase and zipped it shut hastily. Then she got bored of standing around Chris and hurried past to talk with the other five contestants. Chris stood up and glanced nervously over at Hannah, and then to her suitcase. He watched the suitcase carefully for another few minutes, and he didn't look up until he heard the next car approaching.

Another teenage girl stepped out of a white Sedan. She had a natural tan and a head of frizzy brownish-blonde hair. She looked pretty lightweight, had very, very dark green eyes, and was wearing neon green sweatshirt and sweatpants. She gave Chris a friendly smile and carried her bags over to him. She set down one so she could shake his hand.

"Hey, Chris!"

"Lizzy, nice to meet you." replied Chris simply.

"I've been so excited to get here! Will there be any water-themed challenges during the competition?"

Chris just shrugged and said,

"Maybe, maybe not. It's technically against the rules for me to tell you, so..."

"It's gonna be fun, I'm sure... Right?"

He grinned in a kind of roguish way and said,

"Don't worry, Lizzy, you'll have plenty of fun..."

She must not have detected the facetiousness in Chris's tone, because the way he said it hadn't made her skeptical. Her smile widened instantly as she walked past to join the others. She joined the girls, who were whispering and giggling in the corner, and started to talk to them.

A few more minutes passed before the next contestant arrived. A very expensive-looking car, one almost as expensive-looking as Clarence's, parked on the side of the dirt road. A very tall and important-looking girl stepped out, and a man followed behind her, carrying her many bags. This African-American girl was slender and her skin was smooth, her eyes. Her hands were at her hips, and every step she took made a formal-sounding click because of her heels. The jet-black hair on her head was set in a loose bun. Her chest bounced as she went, and her face held a permanent look of pooled willpower and sass. She was wearing a comfortable pair of jeans along with a red long-sleeve shirt and fashionable boots.

The man walking behind her was short yet skinny, and they resembled each other—her father, who was carrying all her heavy bags, looked like he was struggling to hold everything up. They kept walking until they reached Chris; the tall, coffee-brown girl pointed a painted nail at the waiting area and said,

"Daddy, put my bags over there, please."

Her father walked slowly into the area, dropped off the bags, and then walked importantly back to the car. She waved to him as he drove away, and then turned back to Chris. She was tall enough where she needed to look down at him.

"Hello, Chris McLean, it's nice to meet you." she said formally, looking down neutrally at Chris with her small, chocolate-colored eyes.

Chris lifted a hand to her and said,

"Janice, I'm glad you could make it."

She shook his hand politely and smiled, but the smile didn't travel to her eyes; those stayed completely and utterly dispassionate.

"I would like to know which of the luxury cabins I will be staying in so that I may bring in my things."

Chris looked back at the long train behind him and smiled.

"Well, there's been a slight change in plans. Our budget was only wide enough to cover two of the luxury cabins, so you'll be riding in, well..." he turned back to look up at her, now greatly amused. "Let's just say it's not first class."

Janice pursed her lips at the comment, and Chris realized just how huge and red they were. It was even hard to look at them without getting a headache because of the blood-red color. He was going to suggest toning it down on the lipstick, but from the serious look on her face he decided that it wasn't the best decision to make. Still, he snickered to himself as she passed him. Janice walked away from him and into the waiting area with the other eight contestants. She walked up to Clarence first since he was the nearest.

"Hello, my name is Janice, and I look forward to getting to know you. I will compete with pure fairness for these challenges, and I promise that no foul play will be involved on my part."

She said this like she was reading off of a script. Clarence shook her hand politely and was about to make small talk when she moved on to the other contestants, saying the exact same words to each of them. The tenth contestant arrived nearly ten minutes after Janice, driving up slowly in a red minivan. A boy stepped out this time, carrying two large silver suitcases. He was short and scrawny, with an almost-average skin tone; he was still kind of light. He had a few freckles, dark brown eyes, rectangular glasses, and shaggy ash hair that was combed neatly. His attire was simply a plain purple T-shirt and white/gray plaid shorts. He looked a little nervous as he approached Chris, yet held out his hand with a small smile.

"Hey, you're Chris McLean, correct?" he said.

Chris took the hand and shook it.

"Yep! So, Jonah, I heard that you're popular around the world for your novels on that author's website, am I right?"

Jonah's smile widened with pride, showing the braces on his teeth.

"You mean Fanfiction?" Chris nodded at the inquiry. "Yeah, that's right! I'm working on writing a murder mystery called _Mr. Monk Goes Fishing_ right now; it's about a murder that happens at a fish market. So far, with the total of all my novels, I've become popular in sixty-nine countries across—"

Chris held up a hand to stop the flow of words.

"Er, that's great, but you're kind of standing in front of another contestant, dude."

Jonah turned around for a split second to see a guy in an orange hoodie and jeans just standing there quietly. He flushed with embarrassment and turned back around, moving past Chris and saying,

"Oh, um, sorry about that..."

The guy in the orange hoodie and jeans was very lanky. His face was covered in acne, but underneath that was a cool expression with hazelnut eyes and shaggy dirty-blonde hair similar to Jonah's only not as well-kept. His chin even held a small goatee of the same color. Cool as a cucumber, he held out a large hand to Chris and they high-fived.

"Chris, my man; how's it going, dude?"

"It's been awesome, Joe! So, bro, how's life with you?"

Joe took in a deep breath and then let it back out slowly.

"Man, it's just been super cool, man. My life has been so cool since I got out of high school, man. I've just been chilling with my homies, y'know? I actually got a job at a brewery that my dad works at, and it's just been great; everything's 10% off for me, which is epic. I also got a job at this cool new drugstore downtown, dude. It's, like, so awesome because I get discounts on everything there too..." he said in a serene tone.

Joe moseyed past Chris, carrying his four duffel bags into the waiting area. He parked himself next to Adrian and they quickly became acquainted. Chris quickly checked his watch, seeing that the time was exactly 7:30 AM. The first eleven contestants had arrived and eleven more had yet to come, and it was clear that Chris could hardly wait to get started.

Four more minutes went by before the next contestant arrived. There came a sudden screeching of wheels from somewhere nearby, and as soon as Chris looked down the road he could see a red sports car zooming down the dirt path. He moved back five feet to avoid being enveloped by the huge cloud of dust that trailed the sides of the vehicle. Once all the clouds had dissipated away a dude jumped out of the car and threw his bags down at his feet. He had lots muscles and dark, leathery skin. His navy blue eyes seemed dangerous as he looked around him, puffing out his chest. The hair on his black hair on his head was pulled into short dreadlocks behind his head. He was rather tall, too. He was wearing running shorts and a well-worn, tank top that was cut off at the shoulders. On his feet were massive black hiking boots.

He walked up to Chris with his bags and they did a knuckle bump; when Chris looked down he was slightly startled to see that the dude's forefinger on his right hand was missing.

"Brock, what happened to your finger, man?" muttered Chris, looking with a very slight grin at the fleshy bump.

Brock just smirked and shrugged, saying,

"Long story, don't feel like telling it. Anyway, what's going on?!" he asked loudly.

"Total Drama National Tour: The American Express," said Chris, "So, are you ready for some crazy, super-wicked challenges?"

Brock threw his fists into the air and declared,

"Now THAT'S what I'm talking about!"

He took his bags and walked off into the waiting area, walking over to the girls in the corner with Peter. He seemed to be shouting everything he said, so you could hear him talk about all the cool stuff he's done from a hundred feet away. Two minutes later another contestant arrived at the scene; they pulled up in a rusted white van. Another boy stepped out of this one.

He was short and chubby with flabby arms and legs. His face was pink and inch-thick glasses were perched upon his nose. His hair was merely a large patch of straw-like strands colored a white-blonde. His eyes were a normal shade of blue. He was wearing an ugly blue turtleneck sweater despite the warm weather, and it pinched his body, showing the bulge of his stomach and sagging chest. On top of all that, this guy looked really awkward as he walked along, dragging his few bags with effort. When he reached Chris he dropped the bags with a sigh and then held out a pudgy, smudged hand.

"Hi, I'm Fred." he said breathlessly.

They shook briefly, but before getting a reply from Chris, Fred hoisted up his bags and moved past, his one and only goal being the accomplishment of getting his stuff into the waiting area. Chris watched in hilarity as dumpy little Fred shuffled all the way into the vicinity with the other twelve contestants. He set his bags back down with a gasp and then sat down on one of the suitcases, breathing heavily. Chris looked down at his watch again, noting that the time was 7:36; it was becoming a strange habit all of a sudden.

Another contestant arrived right after Fred, and it was a female this time. A navy-blue Porsche drove up on the side of the road and out came a very tall and slender seventeen-year-old girl. She was as tall as Janice, but a lot slimmer. She had long blonde hair and her skin was lightly tanned. She was wearing skinny jeans and a cool black jacket, which looked brand new. She may have looked really pretty, although her greenish-gray eyes held a kind of wicked gleam to them.

Two scrawny, pale boys came following from behind, grunting as they pulled her five overstuffed suitcases, which were all connected into one line. She walked no skip in her step, no faltering in her line, and wore a look of pure determination and conceitedness. She and the small boys walked directly past Chris without a word. As they passed, Chris grinned and looked at the older girl, saying,

"Greta, how nice of you to join us."

Greta turned to look at him for a moment, but then just rolled her eyes and continued. From the looks of it, the two small boys were her younger brothers, and she seemed like she could care less if they collapsed from exhaustion. The three of them made their way into the patch of room with the rest of the contestants. Greta looked around at the people she'd be spending eight weeks with, her eyes going from the rowdy Adrian to the overexcited Grace and her blindingly glittery friend Kelsey, then to Hannah and her gun, _Killer Kim, _which was being jerked this way and that as though she had suddenly lost all control over her arms. Finally, her eyes settled down on Fred and his overly sweaty pits. A sneer formed upon her face when she looked at them and then turned around to face Chris, who had been standing nearby watching her expression.

"So, this is seriously my competition?"

Chris grinned again and nodded.

"Yep! There are still eight contestants who're coming, brah, so don't get too disappointed."

She murmured something under her breath and then glared down at her brothers.

"Well? Set down my stuff, will you?"

The two pale boys let go of her bags suddenly, falling to their knees and wheezing. Greta kicked them both with a black boot to get them moving.

"Go away now; you're embarassing me!"

In reality, everybody was watching, and all of them were thinking that the two boys were off way worse than Greta, but nevertheless the boys just stood up and scurried off nervously, jumping back in the backseat of the Porsche, the vehicle driving away the next second. Greta looked away from the road and back at her fellow contestants, who all turned back to what they were doing instantly. She sighed with slight annoyance and bent down, reaching inside one of her suitcases and pulling out a tube of lip balm and putting it on. After that she rummaged through it again, pulling out a golden handheld mirror with a crack down the middle. She scowled and gave the crack a nasty look.

"Ugh, those dumb boys cracked the mirror." muttered Greta, moving the mirror around to look at her split reflection.

While all of the contestants were avoiding Greta's gaze, they didn't even notice that another female contestant was arriving at that moment; actually, it wasn't exactly the most obvious entrance, anyway. As Chris turned around to face the road again he saw somebody crossing it on foot. This somebody was another female. She had dark skin and was squat yet seemingly delicate. She was built with lots of chest and backside, so it bounced even more than Janice's did as she walked. Her eyes were a calming shade of olive, her cheeks were rosy, and she was smiling kindly, showing perfectly white teeth. She wore a white cotton T-shirt, comfortable jean shorts, and a pair of worn sandals.

The funny thing was that she seemed to be talking to a small squirrel that was sitting on her shoulder. In fact, there were four squirrels just sitting on her; two were on each shoulder. As she got closer Chris could see a collection of different-colored birds sitting atop her head of faintly curly black hair. Her arms were held out in front of her, so there were even tons of little caterpillars, butterflies, and crickets just resting there. When she was close enough, Chris could make out what she was saying to one of the squirrels.

"—agree! They were very cute infants of yours. I bet Mana is so proud of herself."

The girl finished crossing the road, looked up and jumped suddenly when she saw Chris, nearly scattering the squirrels, birds, and bugs into the air. She quickly collected herself and then held out a large hand out to Chris.

"Oh, hi." she murmured, looking slightly embarrassed. "I'm Meredith; I'm here for the Total Drama show; I'm a contestant now, right?"

Chris, who had just been watching a teenage girl talk to an American red squirrel, gradually looked over at the waiting area and gestured to it.

"Yeah, just, um, wait over there..." he said slowly.

Meredith merely smiled with politeness and said,

"Ok."

She walked carefully past Chris, so as not to disturb her animal friends, and set herself in another corner of the area where there was peace and quiet. Several people watched her with surprise as she was speaking normally to the animals. Great smirked and raised one eyebrow, obviously not believing what she was looking at, and then went back to examining herself in her cracked mirror.

Just five minutes later, two contestants arrived at the same time. A white Kolosso Toyota pulled up next to the road and out came two seventeen-year-old girls. The first one that came out looked just barely above average height. She had smooth red hair that fell to her shoulders and a peach skin tone. Her face held some freckles and her eyes were a fresh blue. She was wearing a T-shirt with the Rareware logo printed on it, blue jeans, and white sneakers. She walked around back of the vehicle and grabbed four suitcases at once, pulling them behind her towards Chris. She only went about three steps before stopping, looking back at the open doors of the car, and shouting,

"Emily, c'mon! We're here!"

A very shaky female voice came from out of the vehicle.

"I... I d-don't think I can d-do this, Megan."

Megan grinned and waved a hand encouragingly.

"It's fine, just come on out!"

About five seconds went by before the unknown person named Emily stepped out of the vehicle. She too was average height but kind of plump. Her thick arms and legs shivered as she stood. She was covered from head to toe in freckles; there was hardly an inch of visible skin. Falling from her head was thick and heavy brown hair, which fell over one of her eyes. In fact, her eyes were very strange themselves, for they were actually black, so dark that it was difficult to distinguish between the iris and the pupil. Also, she was wearing gray sweatshirts and sweatpants, kind of like Lizzy only less colorful.

Emily looked like she had seen a ghost, because even when she just stood there you could see every bit of her shaking, and there was fear filling her unusually colored eyes. Megan waited for a few moments, watching her with the same welcoming smile, and then decided to get her some help. She walked over to Emily and put and arm around hers.

"Alright, Emily, it's time! This is your day, remember? You're gonna be brave today, ok?"

Emily looked around her quickly, her lip quivering, but slowly nodded her head after a few seconds. Megan and Emily began walking towards Chris; when they got there, Megan held out a long-fingered hand to him and said,

"Hey, I'm Megan! This here's Emily..." she said, gesturing at the shaky girl beside her.

Chris glanced once at Emily, making her jump slightly. Experimentally, Chris jumped out at her, and she screamed, covering her face quickly. Megan glared unbelievingly at the host and tried to comfort Emily at the same time.

"What the heck was that for?!" she shouted, guiding them past Chris.

As the two of them walked past Chris, Megan continued to look daggers at him. After a minute of convincing, she was able to take Emily around and introduce her to all the other contestants. She was terrified by Peter, who only had to look down at her with his towering height before she scrambled away. Chris just shook his head after watching for a few minutes and turned his interest back on the dirt road. Six more minutes later, another contestant arrived, and this one came in riding a very bumpy bus. The doors of the bus opened and Chris was ready to meet the next contestant.

Only thing was, the contestant didn't even come out. Chris tapped his foot, staring at the doors of the bus in expectance. He hastily checked his watch, seeing that the time was already 7:51; he didn't even have ten minutes, so this kid had to hurry up. When he looked closer, he could see a small seventeen-year-old male standing next to a driver with a greasy black mustache. The kid was talking the man's ear off, just going on and on about who knew what. Chris strained to hear what they were talking about, leaning in with one ear to listen.

"...so cool! What do all these even do?" the kid reached out and put his hand on the wheel, reaching in with his foot to step on the gas pedal. "Is this how you drive it?"

Before the bus driver could stop him, he slammed his tiny foot on the pedal and spun the wheel around in a circle, and the bus launched itself forward and then sideways. It crashed into the ditch on the other side of the road, and the bus driver himself was catapulted into one of the trees; he shouted down at the contestant with rage as the boy ran right out of the ditch moments later, shaking his fist. The boy giggled and turned around, blowing a raspberry at the man, and then turned around, zooming across the dirt road with his one suitcase and bouncing in front of Chris.

The kid was pretty much as big as Hannah, so he was shorter than short. Additionally, he was quite scrawny. His blonde hair was like duckfluff and his eyes were a bright blue-green shade. Unfortunately, this guy was a MAJOR fashion disaster. He was wearing a horizontally-striped neon green T-shirt even brighter than Lizzy's sweatshirt—Chris squinted slightly to prevent becoming blind—brown khaki shorts with vertical white stripes, a blue headband, and was wearing sneakers colored like the rainbow. He jerked out a small hand and grabbed Chris's, shaking it vigorously with a flashy grin.

"Hey, I'm Sammy! I'm on the show, right? I'm a contestant here, right?"

Chris yanked his hand free, rubbing it lightly as it was turning pink.

"Yeah, Samuel—"

Sammy suddenly stopped and looked upward at a passing butterfly, his eyes widening.

"I'm... Sammy... I don't like the other name, Chris..."

After about ten seconds, once the butterfly had gone, Sammy whirled his head back around to look at Chris. Chris just gave him an annoyed look.

"You're really seventeen?" he asked skeptically.

Sammy shook his head quickly, messing up his already tousled blonde hair.

"Oh yeah! I'm a lot older than I look! My mom says I'm a little kid trapped in a seventeen-year-old's body." he said, and then grinned and declared, "I'm a contestant, though! Am I? Huh? Am I?"

Chris gave a Sammy a defiant stare and muttered,

"If you go away..."

Sammy pumped his fist suddenly, shouting,

"Oh YES!"

He ran past Chris with his suitcase, dragging it mercilessly across the dusty ground. He zipped in and out of the contestants, saying hi to each of them quickly. Chris watched him with one eyebrow cocked. As he was watching, another car, a green Smart Car pulled up on the side of the path. Another male contestant stepped out of it carrying three duffel bags. He was a few inches under average height, his skin held a slight tan, and his eyes were colored a bright brown. He was wearing a plain white T that was cut off at the shoulders and black shorts, plus a cream-colored baseball cap. He was grinning broadly as he walked towards Chris. Chris grinned as well as they exchanged several high-fives and knuckle bumps.

"Chris, dude! This is so awesome! I just can't believe I'm on the show! Live TV is just, well, awesome! Man, you are so lucky to be doing this all the time."

"Joey, what's going on, my friend?"

Joey's cool grin widened as he continued.

"Oh man, it's just been so freaking awesome! It's been the typical summer. I've had tons of cookouts, ultimate sports tournaments, and just hanging with my buds becomes a daily thing, y'know? I know one thing for sure; this competition is gonna be so much fun, man! LET'S DO IT! YEAH!"

Joey picked his duffel bags back up and headed over to the waiting area, instantly joining Adrian and Joe, seeing that they were the coolest guys of the group. Chris made a mental note that there were still three more contestants who needed to arrive. Thankfully, just under five minutes later, the third-to-last female contestant came. They arrived in a roughed up and rusted pickup truck. The truck jerked to a stop near Chris and sputtered from the tailpipe, blasting Chris with a cloud of car exhaust. As he was coughing and waving away the noxious vapors, he saw a massive figure step out of the driver's seat. She was large and muscular, very hairy along her arms and legs, and looked really sweaty. Her dirty-blonde hair that reached her shoulders was very messy and her eyes were a murky brown. She was wearing a brown plaid shirt and holey jeans.

The oversized female slouched as she walked up to Chris, carrying a massive suitcase over her shoulder.

"Hey, Chris." she said gruffly, grinning down at him with yellow teeth. "Is this where I'll be spending my time?"

The girl looked past Chris at the waiting room with the other contestants. She snorted and then added,

"Heh! Look at all them puny noobs!"

Chris stopped waving away the clouds of smog and looked up at her with slight hesitation; he knew that she wasn't exactly the smartest or the most patient of types.

"Yeah, this is it, Blake." he said.

This just made her laugh even harder. Before Chris could say anything more, Blake lumbered right past him and set herself in the middle of the waiting area, just glancing around at the other teens, looking amused.

Chris just shook his head and turned his attention back to the road.

Almost immediately after Blake, another contestant arrived, this one on foot just like Meredith. It was another male contestant this time. He was medium height but scrawny and had a patch of short red hair on his head. He was sporting what was the beginning of a mustache and stubble. His freckly skin was pink and peeling from bad sunburn. Also, perched on his head was a straw sunhat, shading his yellowish-brown eyes. He was also wearing overalls with a yellow long-sleeve shirt underneath and dirty brown work boots on his huge feet.

He walked up to Chris carrying a worn out suitcase.

"Hello, mah name's Dylan." he said in a typical hillbilly voice, his Adam's Apple moving up and down as he talked.

Chris put a hand on Dylan's shoulder and said,

"Okay, I know you haven't been out so much, plus you've been raised by hillbillies your whole life..."

Dylan raised a hand to stop him and smiled with a mouthful of crooked teeth.

"Don't worry, Chris. I've seen the show befer, an' I promise you tha' I won' become an Ezekiel."

He kept on that same smile as he walked past Chris with his luggage, wearing it all the way into the waiting area. A few seconds later, Chris heard the sound of tires behind him and so he turned to face the road again.

Driving up in a black Honda CR-V, another seventeen-year-old stepped out carrying only one small suitcase. She was on the shorter end of the spectrum at five foot nothing, and was built very delicately. Her wavy, milky-blonde hair was cut at her chin, and her ghostly-pale skin seemed to radiate like moonlight. She had large icy-blue eyes, and a small mouth with white lipstick. She was wearing a sky-blue windbreaker jacket and casual pants along with a pair of gray winter boots.

She walked slowly up to Chris and extended a nimble hand.

"Hello," she murmured in a timid voice, "I am Beatrice."

Chris shook the hand lightly and casually.

"Nice to see you." he said neutrally.

Without another word, Beatrice took a deep breath and moved past, walking into the middle of the waiting area, away from the other contestants. She just sat down on her luggage and stared off into space, her icy-blue eyes full of both curiosity and a little anxiety. Hurriedly, Chris checked his watch; the time was already 7:57 AM, and there were two more contestants to arrive, one male and one female. Then, three minutes later, just as 8:00 rolled around, the 21st contestant arrived in a silver Chevrolet Captiva. It was the female.

Her height was in between short and medium, and the rest of her was rather skinny and pale. Her hair was black and smooth and extended down all the way to her back. Her small, dark blue eyes held a bored look, and there was a black knit cap with long strings perched on her head. She walked slowly and stopped at Chris, paused, took one good look around, and then sighed.

"This is it?" she muttered, obviously not pleased.

Chris smirked and pointed a thumb behind him.

"The waiting area's that-a way, Jenny."

Jenny just lowered her eyebrows farther and continued on, glancing around at the contestants with discontentment. Sammy ran up to her as soon as she had set down her suitcase.

"Hey, I'm Sammy! You wanna hang out?"

Jenny pushed his face back and muttered,

"No, so just leave me alone."

Chris watched as Jenny tried to fend off the energetic teenager for a couple moments. Then he looked down at his watch once more and seeing that the time was 8:01 AM. The last male contestant still hadn't showed up, and Chris became slightly ticked. He had set the time to arrive at exactly eight o'clock in the morning, and yet there were some people who dared to make him wait. For the next nine minutes, Chris repeatedly checked the road from both sides, looking this way and that, tapping his foot impatiently. Finally, once the time had passed he decided to forget about the final contestant and get started.

"Their loss..." he said disappointingly. "Well, I guess that it's time to start Total Drama National Tour!"

* * *

**So, how do you like the new contestants? And where DID the last male go? Hmm... Wonder, wonder.**

**Well, if you like the look of these contestants and want to see how things go for them in the following eight weeks of drama, then just stick around for chapter number 2!**

**~Pastrinator64**


	2. Boarding the Pain Train

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the second chapter of Total Drama National Tour! The first chapter was a great success, guys! I'd just like to thank _cool825 _for setting this story as a favorite; it really does encourage me, so thanks a bunch! :D Now then, the story continues today, but I just need to explain a couple things again.**

**Firstly, once the teams have been decided, you'll be seeing their names a lot; that just means that the contestant being featured in that specific part is from that team.**

**Also, whenever someone is in the Confession Can, I just put the word _confessional _at the top, so it helps both me and the readers in preventing confusion._  
_**

**That should be it, so I guess I'm going to let the story commence!**

* * *

Chapter 2: Boarding the Pain Train

Chris stood before the train and faced the camera.

"Last time on Total Drama National Tour," he began, "twenty-three (supposed to be twenty-four) seventeen-year-old contestants arrived on the scene, all of them ready to compete for the million! We got to meet a variety of faces..."

In his mind he could picture all the different contestants, whether they be crazy, mean, obnoxious, idiots, or just plain weird; he could see them all.

"Unfortunately, one of our contestants failed to even show up, so now I'm stuck with one less person than planned. Still, the competition will begin soon enough! Today, these teens will learn just exactly what they'll be put through for the next eight weeks, all being explained by yours truly!" he said with a wink and a toothy grin. "Now then, let's get on with season 6.5; this is TOTAL... DRAMA... NATIONAL TOUR!"

* * *

All twenty-three contestants gathered around the door to the long train before them. Chris stood in the doorway and raised his hands, gesturing at the entire line of cars.

"Welcome, all you seventeen-year-old contestants! Very soon, we will be beginning Total Drama National Tour! But I like to shorten it to just TDNT; I only say the formal name in the intros."

Jonah suddenly realized something and raised a hand.

"So, why are we doing this here? We're in the middle of Colorado. Isn't the show supposed to be in Canada?"

Chris pointed to him and said,

"That is an excellent question... Moving on!" he said, making Jonah cross his arms and frown. "As I was saying, this train here will be your new home for the next eight weeks. It will also be what we will use to travel throughout the United States for the different challenges. I like to call it, the Pain Train! Heheh." he said with a chuckle.

From the back of the group, Jenny piped up this time.

"How long did it take you to come up with that one?" she muttered sarcastically.

Chris just ignored her comment and continued on.

"Alright, after watching you closely and observing your, well, "traits", I've created two teams. When I call your name, please stand over here." he said, gesticulating to his right."

"Jenny, Joe, Hannah, Peter, Fred, Greta, Meredith, Lizzy, Joey, Brock, and Blake."

The called people all stood to Chris's right. Chris reached back inside the train and pulled out a white flag. He tossed it to Hannah, who caught it and then held it up, showing that on the white material was stitched a golden steam engine.

"You will now be known as the Legendary Locomotives!"

Only Joey and Brock cheered while the others stayed silent. Chris directed his attention back at the other contestants and then pointed to his left.

"The rest of you, stand over here." he said before reading off the names. "Beatrice, Samuel—"

Sammy lifted a fist and shouted,

"It's Sammy!"

Chris frowned and jerked his thumb to his left again.

"Ok, SAMMY." he muttered, and only then did Sammy run over to his spot. "Anyway, as I was saying; Beatrice, Sammy, Adrian, Grace, Kelsey, Greg, Clarence, Jonah, Megan, Emily, Janice, and Dylan, please stand over here."

They did as told, and then Chris reached back in again and took out a second flag, this one black. He tossed it to Adrian, who caught it and held it up in a similar manner. On it was printed a silver train caboose.

"You guys are now known as the Classic Cabooses."

Sammy, being the boisterous dude he was, just burst out laughing at the name.

"Isn't a caboose the butt of the train? Ha! We're the Classic Butts!"

While Sammy was chortling, Chris gritted his teeth and said,

"If you would just follow me inside,"

They all filed into the first car of the Pain Train. Once everyone was in the hallway, Chris turned to face them and cleared his throat. He was about to begin when Fred spoke before him.

"Hold on, I was just counting the teams, and we have one less person! That's not fair, though!"

"Apparently, one of the male contestants failed to show up, so yes, you will be one player short." said Chris.

Fred just frowned at the host, but kept his mouth shut.

"Now then, there will be sleeping arrangements based on your teams. The Legendary Locomotives will get the right side of the train; the Classic Cabooses will get the left side."

"Hahahahaha! Butts!"

Chris whirled on Sammy.

"Would you stop that?!"

He took a deep breath and then continued.

"Each room holds four people, so I will now divide you up. For the Legendary Locomotives, in room 01 will be: Jenny, Hannah, Meredith, and Lizzy. Room 02 will be: Joe, Peter, Joey, and Brock. Greta, Fred, and Blake, you're lucky to have extra space, because you'll be sleeping in room 03."

Greta looked down at Fred with utter disgust. He just looked back up and held a pouty look on his face; he was clearly just as unhappy as she was with the arrangements.

"For the Classic Cabooses, in room 04 will be: Beatrice, Grace, Kelsey, and Emily. In room 05 will be: Sammy, Adrian, Greg, and Clarence. Finally, in room 06 will be: Jonah, Megan, Janice, and Dylan."

Almost immediately, Emily raised a shaking hand and said,

"So I'm n-not with Megan? I d-don't know if I c-can do anything w-without her!"

Megan grabbed Emily's arm and turned her so that they were face to face.

"Emily, I know you're scared, but you'll be fine. You'll be okay! Beatrice, Grace, and Kelsey are really nice. You don't have anything to worry about. I'll be with you the rest of the way, I promise."

Emily sniffled and slowly nodded her head, wiping away some tears. Chris waited until their moment was over before he said,

"Alright, you have a half an hour to unpack and settle in your rooms. Then you all need to come into the dining car for further instructions."

They all did as told and went their separate ways, the Legendary Locomotives going right and the Classic Cabooses going left.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Jenny dragged her suitcase with hardly any effort, staying at the very back of the group. She continued on through the dining car, then into the next hallway. By the time she reached the end of the hallway by locomotive and opened the door to room 01, Hannah, Meredith, and Lizzy were all unpacking. She walked in the room and set down her suitcase by one of the beds. When she looked at it she immediately noticed rusty springs and blankets covered in mothballs. With a heavy sigh, she unpacked her clothes and put them away in the nearby dresser. As she was carelessly throwing her clothes together inside, something hard whapped the back of her head and knocked her knit cap off. She gasped and turned around, seeing Hannah standing there with _Killer Kim _in her arms.

"Idiot..." she muttered, bending over and picking up the cap from off the linty rug.

Meredith came in and looked over Hannah's shoulder, glancing distastefully at the gun in her hands.

"Hannah," she began.

The small girl, upon hearing her name, jerked in a full circle to face Meredith, knocking Jenny's cap off again in the process. While Jenny was quietly insulting Hannah, Meredith spoke in a calm voice to her.

"Would you please put the weapon away for our safety?"

Hannah sighed and looked disappointed, but still set it underneath her bed. Lizzy watched Jenny carefully, formulating the best way to cheer her up. Force once, nothing came to mind.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Just nextdoor, in room 02, the guys were getting along just fine. While the other three socialized, Peter remained quiet, just setting his stuff down where he wanted. Brock noticed the strong and silent dude and put a hand on his shoulder, though he merely turned his head.

"C'mon, Peter! This is no time to be quiet, dude! You're on TV!"

Brock suddenly took a glance at the camera and gave two thumbs up to the viewing world. Joe looked up at Joey, who was lying back on the top bunk.

"Hey, man, you don't mind if I use some extra space, do you?" he said, motioning towards a huge lump in one of this duffel bags.

Joey shrugged and said,

"Sure, why not?"

Joe took out his extra supplies and stowed them away in the largest cabinet, making sure that nobody else was watching.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Meanwhile, in room 03, things were less fortunate for Greta and Fred.

"No, no, no! I already told you, fatty! I get the left bunk!

Fred crossed his arms and stayed sitting on the bed.

"Hey, I claimed this spot, so back off! Besides, that one," he said, pointing to the right bed, "has moldy sheets."

Greta gritted her teeth and said,

"That's why I said that THIS bunk is MINE!"

"I'm not just going to give it up to you because you want it; I've already claimed it, and that's that." replied Fred simply.

Finally, Blake interjected to break the conversation.

"Both of you shut up, already!"

Their argument didn't go any further; Greta grumbled, picked up her massive crocodile skin makeup bag, and looked up at the storage compartment above the dresser, reaching up and pulling at the lock. She grimaced at the lock, wondering how to break it off.

Finally, she walked right out of the room, went down several halls, then stepped outside of the Pain Train into the dry air. She bent over, picked up a sharp rock, and then rushed back to her room. Greta lifted the rock and bashed it on the padlock on the storage compartment, snapping the handle and making it fall to the ground. When she opened it to put the bag inside, something large and black jumped out of it into the room.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Way towards the back of the Pain Train, in room 04, all three of the other girls were trying to get Emily to calm down. She had backed into a corner of the room, bawling her eyes out.

"Megan! Megan!" she repeated, her large hands over her face.

Beatrice calmly approached her and held out a gentle hand, but the moment she touched Emily's shoulder, the frightened girl screamed and shrunk backwards even farther.

"Get away from me!"

Beatrice retracted the hand and glanced worriedly at Grace and Kelsey, who also wore looks of concern. Even Grace couldn't put a positive spin on things.

"What are we going to do?" said Beatrice, fret in her voice.

Grace and Kelsey exchanged glances and then both shrugged.

"I dunno." said Kelsey, giving her a totally blank face.

"Why don't we just go get Megan? She could do something about it." suggested Grace.

Beatrice looked back at Emily, who was still weeping in the corner, her hair scrunched in her hands painfully. It seemed like the best idea, though she knew that it wouldn't be permanent. Beatrice herself had a sudden thought, and after analyzing Emily's reactions, she had an idea of what was really going on with her.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Room 05 was having an interesting little event itself. While Sammy and Adrian were being their cheerful selves, Clarence remained as serious and boring as ever, and Greg was, well, being Greg. He had so much stuff that there wasn't even enough room in the cabinets. He was going to resort to using the dresser to stow away the rest, but Clarence objected.

"Greg, you must understand that we need that space for sorting our clothes."

Greg glowered at him and replied,

"This is valuable stuff, though, so I gotta put it SOMEWHERE! I can't just leave it, can I?"

Clarence sighed and climbed down from the left top bunk. He went inside his suitcase and pulled out a medium-sized safe, which he placed in the corner of the room by the door. He gestured to it and said,

"Greg, you may use my safe to store whatever you think is most valuable, but any extra items will need to find other homes besides the dresser drawers."

He then whispered the combination in Greg's ear. Greg gave a little sigh, obviously disappointed by his options. He bent back over one of his suitcases and then pulled out a collection of seven small orbs. They were each tawny with red stars, and each had a different amount. Sammy's eyes widened with his smile as his eyes fell on the spheres that Greg was carefully carrying over to the safe.

"Woah!" he said, jumping from the top right bunk and running up next to Greg, staring intently at them. "Are those the Dragon Balls? THE Dragon Balls from Dragon Ball Z?"

Greg grinned proudly and then set them lightly inside the safe as though they were his babies.

"You bet they are! They're on a 1:1 scale. The main sphere is made entirely of solid amber, and each star is made of tediously-shaped rubies."

Clarence calculated what the total cost for something like that would be in his mind, and it only took him ten seconds to formulate an answer that was unbelievably expensive, even for most billionaires. Adrian just stared at the crystal Dragon Balls as the door to the safe was shut tight.

"How'd ya afford those, partner?" he asked doubtfully, not able to believe his own eyes.

Greg's grin widened and he said,

"I know a lot of people, that's all."

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Room 06 was probably the quietest of all. Jonah, Megan, and Janice all remained silent as they were putting away their clothes, toiletries, and personal items. It was only until Megan noticed something that she talked. Jonah had just been taking out some T-shirts to put away in the dresser, and she saw that all of them had Minecraft stuff on each of them.

"You play Minecraft?" she asked curiously.

Jonah turned his head to her and said,

"Yeah, it's my favorite game. Still, I used to play it a lot more, but lately I've been playing on this new Wii U we got."

At the words "Wii U", Megan's eyes widened and she gave him an amazed expression.

"You've got a Wii U?"

"And a 3DS, too."

Megan reached down into her pocket and pulled out something. When Jonah looked closely he could see that it was a blue 2DS. He set down the shirts and walked over to her, staring down at it.

"Woah! You've got one of those?"

She grinned and held it out to him.

"Isn't it cool?"

Jonah had never actually held a 2DS, and it was an interesting change for him. He then gave the 2DS back to her and pulled out his own black 3DS, showing it to her.

"This is mine."

As Megan was grinning and getting a feel for the 3DS, she kept flipping the 3D on and off to test it out.

"I wish I had a 3DS instead; this 3D feature is better than I thought."

This was about when Jonah noticed that she was wearing a Rareware T-shirt. His mouth hung open when he saw the golden logo.

"No way!" he said, pointing at it. "You've got a Rareware T-shirt?!"

"I know, right? It was the last one at GameStop when I bought it."

Janice turned her head to look at them skeptically as they were both geeking out, lowered her eyebrows, and frowned at the devices in their hands.

"I never really did understand videogames." she muttered, obviously unable to interpret their gamer-talk.

Dylan looked up at her while putting away his own clothes and said,

"Neither do I, missy."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

The half hour came and went slowly, but after the time had passed, everyone headed into the dining car, which was located two cars away from the train's entrance. Once they were all situated, Chris stood up straight, put on a white smile, and began his instructions.

"Welcome to the dining car!" he said, gesturing around at the wooden tables and chairs dotting each side of the car. "Here you will eat three meals a day, being served by Chef. He's driving the train right now, so I'm just going to say this for him; do not complain about the food, or the slivery wood in the tables and chairs, because he will NOT like it. Heheh! That's a guarantee!"

While everyone was waiting for more instructions, Greta finally ran up to Chris suddenly, Fred following closely behind.

"Chris, somebody was hiding in our room!" she declared angrily. "I barely got a glimpse of his face, but it's a guy, and he took off as soon as I broke the lock on the storage compartment he was stowed away in. Find him!"

Chris suddenly had a brilliant idea, and with great enthusiasm, he turned around to face the other contestants, who stood in a scattered group inside the dining car.

"Alright, everyone! There's been a change of plans, because apparently there's a stowaway somewhere on the train. Originally, I was going to explain all the rules for this season of Total Drama, but not this time. Instead, all of you will have a chance for an early lead in the competition! The person who finds this stowaway will gain an advantage for the first challenge that will take place later tonight!" he said with a laugh, definitely ready for a good manhunt.

Everyone exchanged glances at the mentioning of an advantage; it all sounded good to them.

"But, you have to bring the stowaway here before they take off again. ALIVE, Hannah."

Hannah stopped rubbing the barrel of _Killer Kim _and lowered her head disappointingly.

"Now move, people!" shouted Chris, pointing with both hands at them all.

All of them took off at once, and it became a chaotic scramble within the dining car.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Hannah was the first one to zoom out the door; she had escaped the room before Chris had even finished talking, and she sprinted rather gracefully down the hallway. She knew where to check first: the cargo hold.

Greta had the same idea, because she was following close behind, watching Hannah carefully. She had a foolproof plan to take this guy back to Chris for an advantage, and this time she'd be ready.

Hannah stopped at the door to the storage room. There was a heavy padlock on it, so she grumbled and started pondering how to get inside. Greta immediately saw her chance and came in on the scene, lifting the rock she had from earlier and saying,

"Here, let me get it."

She brought the stone down on the padlock, but this one was a lock sturdier than the first, because the rock merely bounced off. While Greta continued to smash the lock, Hannah looked down at the side of the door and noticed an air vent. She grinned and went down on her knees. She lifted a hand, plucked the rock from Greta's hand, and then used the sharp edge to take out the screws from the vent. It opened with a clang, and she went flat on her stomach, crawling right inside.

"Wow, it's so dark in here!" she said, her voice echoing.

Greta just grumbled and crossed her arms.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Almost immediately, Joe, Joey, Brock, and Adrian came together and started working as a team.

"I have an idea that'll work for sure!" said Joey, looking around at his three new friends. "Let's go from room to room, checking them at the same time. This hiding guy won't be able to escape if there's four people checking a room at once, right?"

Brock did a powerful fist pump.

"Awesome plan!" he hollered, high-fiving him. "Let's do it!"

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Jonah and Megan teamed up and started searching the front of the train. Megan reached out with a hand and quietly opened the door to the front car, looking around. Chef Hatchet sat just thirty feet away, sitting in the conductor's chair, driving the train and whistling to himself. They both looked at each other for a moment.

"You think he'd dare hide in here with Chef?" wondered Jonah.

"I don't want to search in there." murmured Megan.

Jonah gave a quiet little sigh and said,

"Alright, I'm really quiet if I try, so I'll look. If Chef hears me, then we take off."

Jonah inched open the door and slid himself through the small space to get inside silently.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Blake merely walked past the dining hall into the kitchen. She could care less about the advantage; she just wanted something to eat. She walked around inside the kitchen, looking for any junk food she could find. Finally, she reached up into a raised cupboard and pulled out a can of ranch Pringles. She chowed on them greedily, and cleared through the entire can in five minutes. While she was wiping her mouth with her sleeve, she heard a massive clang of pots behind her. When she whirled around, she saw Fred standing there, hastily putting a tower of dirty pans back up on a nearby counter.

"What are you doing, fatty?" said Blake, grimacing at Fred.

Fred groaned and then continued his search inside the lower cupboards.

"Why does everybody seem to want to call me "fatty" lately?!" he said loudly.

"Uh, 'cuz you are." she snorted.

He rolled his eyes and kept searching. Finally, he found a right-sized pan and lifted it out, placing it on the stove. He hustled up to different cupboards, taking out several ingredients such as butter, eggs, onion, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, and peppers. As he was assembling them on the table, Blake walked over to him, staring at all of his supplies.

"What the heck are you doing now?"

Fred cracked three eggs over a hot pan slicked with butter and then looked sideways at her.

"Making an omelet, what's it look like I'm doing?"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Greg bent over the safe, opened it, and kneeled down next to his prized Dragon Balls. He then locked the door to the room, kneeled back down again, and kissed them.

"I love you, my precious Dragon Balls."

"Greg?"

Clarence's voice could be heard from outside the door.

"What are you doing?"

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Sammy ran down each hallway and entered each room, searching tediously. For once, his attention was critical and firm. He listened to every sound and observed every sight. He made his way into room 03 where Greta, Fred, and Blake had been. This was where the stowaway had appeared, obviously. He looked up at the busted doors on the storage compartment and held out his hands, making a square around it and zooming in slightly. He move his hands throughout the room, taking in every bit of it.

Then he noticed something in the rug. He bent down and saw a drop of pink, seeing that it was nail polish. He thought of Greta's height and considered the angle of how she was holding her makeup bag when she first alerted Chris. There were two fine-pointed heel impressions in the rug and one larger spot of compressed carpeting, so he knew exactly where Greta had been standing and where the guy had touched the ground. He looked up at the storage compartment again, then at the impressions, then to the small dot of pink on the rug.

Quickly, he came to a decision that this person had not jumped out, but fallen out on accident, and that Greta had moved out of the way just in time. The drop was about four feet from the larger, slighter impression on the ground, so the person must have jumped up off the ground and ran out of the room, bumping Greta by accident, making a drop of nail polish spill. The dot was left of the heel impressions, so that means that the person bumped Greta's right, which also means he ran out of the room and to the left.

This was when Sammy immediately understood that the stowaway was on the right side of the train, so everybody walking around by rooms 03-06 and the storage room were going in the wrong direction, and that was over half of them. Everybody would figure that the guy entered the storage room for fear of going the other way and running into Chris, but they were greatly mistaken; Sammy also noticed that when Chris was explaining about their meals earlier, there was a tiny dot of salsa on his cheek that he had failed to notice, so he must have been in the kitchen just minutes before. That meant the guy wouldn't risk getting caught while hiding in the kitchen with Chris.

After doing all this thinking and analyzing, Sammy grinned and slightly shuddered at his own genius. He knew that the stowaway was hiding in one of the three cars that went past the kitchen car, so he'd narrowed his choices down in a matter of minutes while everyone else searched pointlessly for longer.

This made Sammy laugh to himself.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Jonah took very slow steps around the locomotive so as not to alert Chef. He made his way around the room, checking all the machines, contraptions, pipe mazes, and miscellaneous things around the room. Still, there was no stowaway to be found there.

He looked back at Megan and shook his head.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Hannah, meanwhile, had crawled all the way through the air vent maze, and after a matter of minutes she was able to drop down from the air vent in the ceiling of the cargo hold. She landed limberly and squinted in the darkness. She had this really cool ability to adjust to different amounts of light really quick, so in about ten seconds she was able to see relatively clear. She creeped past boxes, suitcases, and metal crates alike.

A few silent seconds later, she noticed another large crate with its lid moved just barely to the right; it had already been opened. Grinning with delight and excitement, she slid herself up against the cold metal of the crate. She had _Killer Kim _at the ready as well, just in case of an emergency. Just then, there came a rustle from inside the crate, and it was her chance; she gave a great yell and jumped up, onto another box, pointed her rifle right inside the box, and flipped on the built-in flashlight, illuminating the figure inside.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Joe, Joey, Brock, and Adrian were all busy searching the train car that was just past the kitchen. It was pretty darn cool in there, too; everything was first-class and chockfull of luxury. There were many recliners lined with soft cushions and each had their own polished-wood coffee table on the side. The floor was covered in a golden carpet rather than the crusty shag carpet in the other cars.

The four of them split up, searching around every corner, in every crack, but still couldn't find anything. Finally, they came to the long drink bar on the other half of the first-class room. They all went behind the counter at once so that they could surround the stowaway if he showed his sorry face.

Brock searched underneath the countertop, but there was no one there. Adrian checked the upper cupboards while Joey checked the lower ones, but still there was no one there. Joe walked up to a massive cooler that was set in the corner of the bar and opened it. Still, there was nobody there, either.

They all looked at each other.

"Where could this dude be?" wondered Joe.

The rest of them just shrugged.

"Let's check in the kitchen again."

They turned around and started walking towards the door, but as they were turning around, somebody burst in through the door. For a moment, they thought it was the stowaway, but it turned out that it was just Sammy. The small teen bent over the ground and started inspecting the ground carefully, walking slowly along the carpet.

"Sammy, what're you—"

He lifted a hand and shushed them. They stayed silent and watched Sammy's peculiar behavior. Finally, Sammy stopped inspecting the ground and lifted his head to look at a turned chair. The four guys hadn't realized that there was a recliner that was spun around towards the wall, but now it was sitting there, plain as day. Sammy grinned and dashed for the chair, and the guys went for it to, but they were a few steps too late. Sammy grasped the arm of the comfy recliner and spun it around!

Chris was there, sleeping in the chair. Well, he WAS sleeping in the chair, but the commotion woke him up, and he gave a start. He glowered at Sammy and said,

"When are you going to stop tormenting me, Sammy?!"

Sammy paused for a moment, but then smiled when he noticed something interesting. Chris didn't have a bit of salsa on his cheek anymore. Grinning, he lifted his head and just randomly sniffed Chris's left cheek, making their handsome host pull back in disgust.

"What are you doing?! Do not TOUCH the face, do not SNIFF the face! You may LOOK at the face, and that is all." he muttered irritably.

Sammy just grinned wider. There wasn't the spicy scent of salsa on Chris's cheek, either. This was his chance! Sammy leapt up and grabbed Chris's hair, yanking it as hard as he could. A hairpiece came flying off, and spiked black hair appeared from underneath it. Spiky-haired Chris leapt from his seat and did a frontflip over Sammy's head, bolting towards the door. Unfortunately for him, Adrian's instinct had kicked in right about then, because he was already at the door. But the other Chris didn't stop running; instead, he dropped low to the floor and slid into Adrian, dropkicking the cowboy and making him fall with a shout. Once he had been removed, the other Chris wrenched open the door and made a beeline down the next hallway.

Sammy and the rest of the guys were hot on his trail.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Fred had just taken a bite into his gourmet omelet when the kitchen door burst open, and he stared, in mid-bite, as Chris came barreling through with a bunch of spiky black hair on his head. Moments later, a group of people came through the door as well, chasing after Chris. Sammy was in front, and as he was running he snatched up a pizza board from off of one of the counters and lifted it into the air as though it were a sword.

"FOR NARNIA!" he declared excitedly.

Once the group had passed through, Fred looked down at his omelet and then swallowed the chunk in his mouth.

"What the heck did I put in this?"

Fred then looked up and saw that Blake was also running towards the door, following the others, no doubt. Was he missing something?

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

By this time, the rest of the team members had gathered back in the dining car, all clueless and without a person on their hands; they all failed to catch that slippery sneak. Chris looked around at their stumped faces and then shook his head. He was hoping for a good manhunt, but all he got was a sorry excuse for Hide N' Seek. He walked up in front of them all and cleared his throat to get their attention.

"Okay, so nobody has found the stowaway?" he questioned them, and they all shook their heads and shrugged.

Just then, somebody came bursting into the dining car from the kitchen. Chris whirled around and jumped in surprise when he watched himself with spiked hair zoom past. The other Chris ran left of the equally-startled group of seventeen-year-olds to get around them and continue his run. Unfortunately for him, Hannah just happened to be running with a heavy burlap sack on a cart, going in the opposite direction, and they collided before one could dodge the other. The other Chris got rammed into at the stomach by the sprinting figure of Hannah, and he toppled backwards, landing flat on his back with no breath left. Hannah's grip of the sack came apart, and she fell forward on top of spiky-haired Chris. For a moment, they just lay there in a daze; everyone surrounded them in a thick circle, all trying to get a good look at the other Chris. He was groaning and clutching his stomach. Finally, the real Chris came in through the crowd and just stared at his doppelganger. For a moment, he was just silent, but then he frowned and said,

"Okay, I'm embarrassed." he said, pointing to the guy's face. "Even I can tell that's an extreme makeup job. I mean, seriously! You've got my nose all wrong, dude."

Chef walked in moments later, grabbing hold of the other Chris and holding him up by the collar of his shirt. He swung and flailed at Chef, shouting in a voice that no longer belonged to Chris.

"Let go of me, you big **_/censored/_**!"

Chris walked up to his own self and crossed his arms with satisfaction.

"Alright, somebody get the makeup off this guy; we're gonna find out who he really is."

Chef carried the stowaway off into the kitchen, and more shouting could be heard, along with the splashing of water. About two minutes later, Chef came back out holding somebody who was not Chris, but just another seventeen-year-old boy. He was the same height as Chris but skinny and pale. There were ghastly bags under his dark gray eyes and his jet-black hair was spiked up. When he grimaced, you could see that one of his canine teeth was silver. Chris gestured at him with both hands and said,

"Everyone, meet Danny! He's the last contestant!"

Danny glared at them all with utter hatred, and then zeroed in on Greta.

"How'd you open the lock?"

Greta crossed her arms and smiled.

"I bashed it with a rock. How'd YOU open it?"

Then it was Danny's turn to grin.

"I figured out the combination on my own."

Chef finally set the slippery contestant down, and he landed gracefully. Chris jerked a thumb over at the Legendary Locomotives, who all stood in a group to his right.

"Danny, you're now part of the Legendary Locomotives; they were missing a player."

"Before I do anything," muttered Danny as he inspected his teammates with displeasure, "I'm going to change clothes. These ones are horrible."

Chris looked extremely insulted as Danny walked away from them all.

"Okay, until Danny gets back, just talk amongst yourselves." mumbled Chris.

As everyone was talking, Beatrice walked up to Megan and Jonah, who were gabbing on about the Nintendo 64. She tapped Megan's shoulder to get her attention.

"Megan?" she said quietly, making her turn around to face her. "I need to ask you about Emily."

Megan shot a sideways glance at Emily, who was already approaching her quickly, a look of anxiety on her face.

"Is there something seriously wrong with her?" asked Beatrice.

Megan looked at Beatrice for a moment, then back at Jonah, who turned around to give them privacy, and then she looked back.

"Yes, there is. You probably realized it, but Emily has—"

"Megan!"

Emily launched her plump figure at Megan, hugging her close with shaking shoulders.

"I c-can't be on a different t-team! I just can't d-do it!" she murmured feverishly.

Megan caressed her back to comfort her and whispered words of encouragement. Over Emily's shoulder, Megan looked at Beatrice and mouthed a couple words; Beatrice then understood completely. Just then, Danny came back from behind the groups, now wearing a black hoodie with the hood pulled over, shading most of his face. When Chris saw that he had arrived once more, he stood before them all and raised his hands.

"Alright, everybody! Now that we're completely on track, I am going to explain the rules for this season! I've already told you about your meal plan, but now I'm going to discuss the main point. This season, we'll be traveling around on the Pain Train, going around the United States of America to different states. Each state we visit will hold a challenge, taking place in famous tourist destinations such as famous cities, landmarks, etc. The team that wins the challenge will spend the following three days in the first-class car nextdoor of the kitchen, and believe me when I say it's WORTH the effort! The losing team, however, will remain within the rest of the train and have to sleep in their cruddy beds. Also, the losing team will have to vote one of their teammates off. Speaking of which, there is something I must show you now, so please follow me."

Chris lead the two teams into the entrance hallway where the sliding train door was located. On the end of both hallways was a bathroom that went into the wall before them. Chris pointed to the door and said,

"This is the Confession Can, or confessional, if you prefer. If you ever want to share your deepest, darkest secrets on video, get something off your chest, or even just make a confession, then just head on inside and talk right at the camera. Don't worry, the walls are soundproof, so it'll just be you and a whole world of TV viewers!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Jenny

She looked around at the small, cramped little space. There was only a toilet, a toilet-paper holder, and then a sink with a mirror. There wasn't even room to walk in. So, she just sat on the lowered toilet seat and stared at the camera for a few moments, not looking too happy.

"Well, this pretty much sucks. The people suck, the rooms suck, and the host sucks worse. The million dollars had better be worth all this, because I'm already perishing and we haven't even started."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Grace

She grinned broadly and looked around the small room for a moment, but then back at the camera.

"This is so awesome! I'm on TV! Oh my gosh, this is just, like, GREAT! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Dylan

He looked around at the shiny bathroom walls and polished mirror in surprise.

"Golly, this sho' is a goldarn fancy outhouse."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Blake

She was sitting down on the seat, her back turned, chowing down on a secret stash of ranch-flavored Pringles stole from the kitchen. Empty tubes covered the counter in front of her. Suddenly, Blake turned around, saw the camera, and quickly covered it up with a meaty hand.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Greta

"Well, so far, this has been pretty lame. I mean, the rooms were bad enough, but the people?" she smiled at the camera. "I just can't wait to beat them all. It's not like they're much of competition. All I can say is this; once this is all over, I'M going to make myself the most famous person on Earth."

At these words her white smile turned wicked.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Chris led them all back to the dining car again. With a grin that was wider than ever before, he folded his arms and looked around at them all.

"Alrighty then! As soon as I am finished with my speech, we will be off and riding towards your first challenge, which will be taking place near Cañon City right here in Colorado."

Chris clapped his hands together and declared,

"So, without further ado, let's begin Total Drama National Tour!"

He left the contestants standing in the dining hall and continued on through the kitchen, the first class room, the hallway containing the rooms for the Legendary Locomotives, the hallway with his and Chef's private rooms, and then entered the locomotive. He strolled on up to Chef, who had already seated himself back in the conductor's seat.

"Chef," he said, "it's time to start up the engine and get this baby moving."

Chef smiled a toothy grin and nodded, then reached out and pressed a couple buttons. About ten seconds later, he put a hand on the throttle and pulled back hard, setting the Pain Train in motion; they were making their way along the train tracks, trekking towards the first destination.

Chris made his way back to the people waiting in the dining room. They were all looking out the windows at the passing landscape with the exception of Greta, who merely stood watching from the middle of the room, rolling her eyes. She didn't really see the pleasure in this. Chris whistled loudly, getting all of them to pay attention to him once more.

"Until we reach Cañon City, feel free to wander around, get used to your new rooms and fellow competitors."

Just then, Chris stopped for a moment, looked around at the group in front of him, and then said,

"Has anyone seen Adrian?"

Immediately, Sammy, Joey, Brock, and Joe all bolted towards the door leading into the kitchen. Chris just stared for a moment, but then shook his head and turned back to the other contestants, continuing with his speech.

"But try not to linger in the first class car, because there are security cameras that we check every week; you'll be caught, so don't even bother. If your room past the luxury room, then just walk right through it, but no other excuses. Trust me, you do not want Chef to catch you, because he will give you the grossest jobs to do for him. Example: cleaning the communal washroom AFTER he uses it for his own purposes. Ha!" he said with a laugh, imagining several campers completing grody tasks; he could just picture their faces. "Anyway, I suggest you take some time to settle in. For now, I'll just leave you on your own. Good luck!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Janice

She looked with an uncertain expression at the camera with her lips pursed.

"Okay, I can detect sarcasm very well, and I'm very sure that Chris is just waiting for us to fail."

From outside of the bathroom, you can hear another yell.

"I agree!"

Janice turned towards the door and said,

"Greg, don't stalk a lady while she's in the bathroom! Honestly!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Beatrice

"Well, my main concern is for Emily. I finally know what has been affecting her so badly, and I'm not sure exactly what Megan was hoping to accomplish by bringing her along. It seems that it would've been a safer choice to leave her at home, but... I don't know."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Emily

She sat on the toilet with her head bent over, sobbing into her hands.

"I wish Megan h-had never brought m-me here! I wanna g-go HOME!"

* * *

_Confessional_

Chris

Well, it looks like things aren't going so well for Emily, do they? If you want to see even MORE tension and drama, then stick around until next episode, where these twenty-four teenagers will be put through what will probably be the most grueling thing they will ever do! ...Nah, I'm sure there'll be even worse stuff in the future, but still! I'll see you next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... NATIONAL TOUR!"

* * *

**I'd have to agree with Chris; Emily really is in a bad spot. Well, I do hope that you liked chapter two, because you can count on seeing chapter three relatively soon! Stick around!**

**~Pastrinator64**


	3. The Hop of Faith

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with the third chapter of Total Drama National Tour! I'd like to thank _Volcanic the hedgeho_g for his review and _cool825 _for adding me into his community.**

**This chapter is a good one, I assure you; the 24 contestants are about to participate in their first challenge. How exciting! :D**

**Without further ado, I shall now let the story commence!**

* * *

_Chapter 3: The Hop of Faith_

Chris stood before the train and faced the camera.

"Last time on Total Drama National Tour," he began, "our twenty-three contestants were split into two teams: the Legendary Locomotives and the Classic Cabooses. Then they boarded the Pain Train and began to get to know their new roommates. Things really got cooking when it was discovered that there was a stowaway hidden somewhere on the train. The twenty-three contestants were put to the test to find the stowaway, and it was Sammy with his incredible observation skills that led to the stowaway's revealing. Turns out, that stowaway, a.k.a. Danny, was actually the last contestant who failed to show up for the competition. Now we are on the move towards the teens' first challenge. Which team will succeed and win the first class room for the next three days, and who will lose and be forced to send someone home? Find out right here, right now, on TOTAL... DRAMA... NATIONAL TOUR!

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Danny immediately tracked down Sammy. He really wanted to share his wrath with the kid, but as soon as he turned around he could see a group of people surrounding him, questioning him on how he found Danny in only five minutes. Danny'd have to save his vengeance for later, so he merely walked away and began plotting.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Hannah, meanwhile, was very confused on what was going on. For a moment, she just looked back at her burlap sack. It was tied very tightly, and inside of it was something struggling. She had caught the stowaway, hadn't she? Curious, she pulled on the wagon that held the burlap sack and dashed up to Chris, who'd just been heading out the door. She stopped him, pointed to the wagon, and then said,

"Wait, but Chris, I found a different stowaway!"

Chris looked down at the struggling bag and stared.

"Uh... But who is that?"

Hannah looked back down at the bag, but then bent over the heavy knot that it was tied into, unsheathed a pocket knife that had been sitting in her pocket, and cut the knot.

"Here, let me just—"

But she wasn't even able to finish her sentence, because just as the words were coming out of her mouth, something clammy, big, and green hurtled out, tackling Chris to the floor. This creature had only a few strands of grimy brown hair trailing down from his scalp, and his clothes were torn and even grimier. As Chris was struggling on the ground to get the thing off of him, he realized that it was indeed the demented Ezekiel; he must've still been out for sweet revenge.

Suddenly, there was a sharp whiz-like sound in the air, and two black darts flew from out of a second barrel on Hannah's gun; one embedded itself in the back of Ezekiel's head, the other in Chris's shoulder. Both of them fell silent, snoring deafeningly on the floor. Everybody gazed at Hannah with wide eyes. She looked back at them and grinned nervously.

"Heheh... I've usually got better aim."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Jenny walked into her room and lay on the musty bed, sighing greatly. She doubted that she would be able to stand all those weirdos for the entire competition. Thankfully, they'd just keep leaving, one after the other, and then MAYBE things would go well for her. She came to become rich and famous; nobody told her that she'd be entering a freak show. Just then, somebody knocked on her door. She blew the hair out of her eyes and sat up on the bed.

"Who is it?" she mumbled loudly.

Suddenly, the lights shut off in her room, and she gasped. Something was rustling in her room, and she jumped from the bed, running towards the door. Desperately, she hoped that Ezekiel hadn't somehow gotten in her room. Then something grabbed her arm and she shrieked as loud as she could. The next moment, the lights turned back on and there was Danny, standing right next to her, laughing his head off. She grimaced and shook a hand at him, just barely missing his arm.

"What the heck?!" she shouted.

Danny grinned and shook his head.

"Sorry, I couldn't resist!" he said while looking at her mischievously. "I just happened to notice you standing there when we were all inside the dining hall, beautiful."

Jenny glared at him and muttered,

"Sure, I'll hook up with you, but only right after I let Hannah shoot a tranquilizer dart up my butt."

Danny merely shrugged and walked towards the door, keeping a gleaming eye on her.

"Whatever, I know you'll change your mind soon enough."

The malicious grin stayed on his face even as he walked out the door. Jenny groaned and flopped back on the bed, her bad mood even worse now.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Dylan was quite fascinated by the entirety of the Pain Train. Since he'd been raised on a stinky ranch with only the company of dirt-covered animals and hillbilly parents, there weren't very many things he got to see in the real world. Unlike Ezekiel, though, he constantly tried to be as social as possible; he was just kind of behind the times.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Dylan

He looked around at the bathroom walls again, stroking his red goatee and humming.

"Gee, I never really thought that I could git inter wonna these fancy shows. Total Drama National Tour? I dunno, but I don' tink that I will evah git used ter this kinda environment. It's all so full o' luxury, that's all. The ceiling's not covered in lake flies, the floor's not made of dirt, an' even the bathrooms aren't outhouses. This really will get a lotta gettin' used ter."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Blake

"I'm looking at this redneck walking around gawking at everything, and I just think to myself, "he REALLY doesn't get out much." I might not be the most social kind, but I know one thing for sure: I'm way more exposed than that guy."

She sighed and leaned back against the wall, shaking her head and smirking.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Joey

"Oh MAN! I'm just so pumped for the first challenge! I wonder what it's going to be."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Chris stood before the two teams and smiled. He rubbed his shoulder furiously where the dart had hit him, trying to get it to stop numbing up, but finally decided to ignore the lack of feeling and continue.

"Teams, we just passed by Cañon City, so there are only about thirteen more miles to go until we reach our destination: the Royal Gorge Bridge, the highest elevated bridge in the US! Once we are there, I will explain your first challenge."

As Chris was walking away, he stopped and turned his head to them.

"Oh, and make sure you're wearing your swimsuits."

With that, he left them.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Jonah

He looked at the camera with a face filled with nervous curiosity.

"Okay, I'm not sure exactly what Chris is planning on having us do up on top of the US's highest suspension bridge in swimwear, but I know for a fact that it has to be pretty bad."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Roughly thirteen minutes later, Chris came in through the door of the dining room and gathered the contestants again. As instructed, they were wearing swimwear. All the girls, even Blake, were goggling at Peter and his massive upper body; he was RIPPED! It took a few moments for them to notice that Chris was standing right there.

"Okay, we are just about to head over the Royal Gorge Bridge now, so make sure you're ready for the first challenge!"

"Um, Chris?" said Greta skeptically. "What are you planning on having us do up there?"

Chris smiled and said,

"I'm so glad you asked that question, Greta. I will now explain your challenge! I call it the Hop of Faith! As you probably already know, train hopping was a form of free transportation for hobos, and it occurred mostly during the Great Depression. Train hopping is still done today, and since this entire competition will be spent on a train for the majority of the time, I decided to bring back some old tradition and turn it into a challenge."

Chris waved his hand for them to follow, and so they did. The twenty-five of them including Chris made their way into the main entrance hallway, past the Confession Can, and then up to the entrance door. Without warning, Chris slid the steel door open, letting in a powerful draft of whipping wind. Over the sound of the wind, he shouted,

"All you have to do is make the 1,053-foot-high jump into the Arkansas river! On either side of the river you will see lots of backpacks, one for each team member! After acquiring the packs, make the steep hike up the Royal Gorge back to the other end of the bridge! The Pain Train will be waiting to pick you up there, and whichever team gets all their members and packs there first will get to spend the following three days in the first class car with whatever they get in their packs."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Greg

He raised his hands in the air and shouted,

"Is he completely insane?!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Greg raised his hands in the air and shouted,

"Are you completely insane?!"

Chris turned his head to get a good look at all of the contestants' horrified faces, which made him chuckle.

"Each member that jumps will get a point for their team. The team with the most points gets to carry the green packs, and the losing team will carry the blue ones. Also, the winning team will be using the simple path to get up and out of the gorge; remember, you want to be the first team out of the gorge, otherwise you'll be sending someone home and be stuck in the second class rooms for three more days. Is this all clear? Good."

He pointed with two fingers at the door and declared,

"Alright, the Classic Cabooses can go first!"

The team on the left all exchanged glances with each other. Finally, it was Sammy that raised a fist and said,

"I'll go!"

He ran straight at the open entrance, but before he could leave, Chris grabbed him by the arm and kept his scrawny figure from chucking itself out into open air.

"Hold on, dude. Haven't you forgotten your advantage? You still earned an aid for finding the stowaway." said Chris; in the back of the crowd, Danny's grumble could be heard.

Chris reached behind him and pulled out a small parachute pack to fit Sammy.

"You can use this to make sure you land safely and softly." he said, tossing it into Sammy's arms.

Sammy looked down at the parachute, grinned for a moment, and then tossed it out the door carelessly, letting it be taken away by the wind.

"Nah! That'd ruin the fun!"

Everyone watched with open mouths as he launched himself out, freefalling towards the river below, his laughter resonating in the dry air as he went.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Janice

"What is that boy thinking? He could've given it up to somebody else to help the team, but noooooo; he's gotta just THROW it out the door!"

* * *

The rest of the Classic Cabooses watched him until he was just a neon green dot in the distance; thankfully, he landed in the river and appeared unharmed. Chris tapped his watch and said,

"C'mon, guys! The train is slowed down pretty well, but if you don't jump before we cross the Royal Gorge Bridge then you cost your team the point! So get moving! Next member needs to jump!"

Grace and Kelsey went next. They both jumped from the train at the same time, screaming piercingly and hugging each other tight as they plummeted. Clarence then walked up to the edge of the train, looked down at the river far below, and closed his eyes. He let the wind take him out the door, and with rationality, as he fell he spread out his arms and legs, slowing his fall rather than let himself rocket downward in an aimless pattern. Even in such a situation as this, he knew what the best decision was.

Adrian was willing to jump, but as he looked around at the rest of his teammates he realized that they wouldn't be able to do it on their own. So, to help them out, Adrian spread his strong, tan arms out wide and grabbed hold of Greg, who had a really bad farmer's tan; Adrian brought him up to the open doorway and leaped out together. Greg screamed with rather girly cries as he fell with Adrian, who just hooted and hollered out of pure adrenaline.

"Alright, that's six points so far for the Classic Cabooses!"

Dylan peered past the door and gazed fearfully at the Arkansas river. He could just barely see the six who had jumped already, and they were standing near the water's edge. He took a deep breath and murmured,

"Dylan, yer gonna be fine. You've done plenty mur crazy stuff down at the ranch, yessiree."

Gathering all his courage, Dylan leaped out the Pain Train's door into open air.

"YEEHAW!" he hollered as he fell, his hands clasped onto his straw hat to keep it from flying off.

As Chris was watching him fall, an overload of images of Ezekiel flooded his mind. It was almost insane how much alike they were. The remaining five from the Classic Cabooses exchanged glances: Beatrice, Janice, Megan, Jonah, and Emily; none of them wanted to jump. A few seconds of intense staring later, Megan just sighed and walked up to the edge, wearing a comfortable yellow bikini. For a moment she just stood there, clutching the side of the doorway in terror, her knuckles white. Finally, she turned around and looked right at Emily, who was standing there wearing a large black one-piece swimsuit.

"Emily, I need you to push me out."

Emily's eyes widened in both surprise and equal fear.

"I can't do that to you! What if you die?!"

"They have the interns test out the challenges first, remember?"

Chris sure remembered; the day that this intern named Kyle jumped, he totally missed the river and hit the mountainside instead. Chris didn't want to go and find the guy to see how mangled he was in fear of being scarred for life. Megan, of course, had no idea of this whatsoever, and yet she still was apprehensive. Even though Emily wasn't the jumper, she was completely freaked out of her mind.

"I just won't do it! I couldn't bear the thought of you dying!" she shouted firmly, not budging in fear for her best friend's life.

Megan stared at her disappointingly for a moment, but then instantly turned and looked over at Jonah.

"Jonah, push me off."

He raised his eyebrows, his lips a tight line on his face. Finally, he walked up to her, raised a hand, and then said,

"You sure? Positive?"

She nodded, although her eyes showed dread. Still, Jonah nodded back and then pushed her.

"Oh wait I changed my—"

But before she could finish her sentence, she was screaming and diving deep into the gorge. Beatrice came up next, her icy-blue eyes glued to the river far below.

"Jonah, push me off as well." she murmured in an uneasy tone.

"Uh..." said Jonah, as it was all he could say.

"Please do it. I am too scared to get myself out on my own."

Jonah didn't argue with her; as she closed her eyes calmly, he pushed her out the door. Her shrill cry pierced the air, though her arms and legs stayed stretched out determinedly, making sure that she wouldn't be blown off-course.

Now all that was left was him, Janice, and Emily. Once again, Chris tapped his watch impatiently.

"Hurry up, you three! We're almost halfway across the bridge and there are still another twelve people to jump after you!"

Janice immediately backed away from the open door and said,

"Oh no! No way am I jumping into that ravine!"

Chris grinned at the sound of her panicked voice.

"Technically, you don't have to jump, but if you decide to stay up here, then you'll have to take the penalty."

Janice looked down at him and then put her hands on her hips, one eyebrow raised.

"And what would that be, might I ask?"

"Well, first of all, it would cost your team a point. Second of all, you'd have to wear this thing on your head for the rest of the day."

Chris pulled out the infamous chicken hat from inside his grayish-blue jacket, reaching up and slapping it on her head.

"If you're really that desperate, then I guess you'll just have to take the consequences."

Janice gave a little groan from inside and walked away sadly, ignoring the amused looks from the other team. Jonah and Emily then exchanged glances. Jonah pushed up his sliding glasses habitually, and Emily shook on the spot. With tears in her eyes, she backed up against the wall and shouted,

"I can't jump! I can't jump! I'll take the penalty, just don't m-make m-me jump!"

Chris tut-tutted at her and pulled out another chicken hat, placing it on her head. She gasped back hot teardrops and ran out of the left door in the hallway, seeking out her room where she could weep in peace. Chris gritted his teeth and took a sharp intake of breath as he always does when he sees something that just isn't natural; example: Harold wearing tiny red undies in season one.

Now Jonah was the last one left. He had nobody to push him, nobody to encourage him. He gazed alarmingly at the passing landscape, and below he could see his fellow teammates looking back up at him.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Jonah

"I am not an adventurous person, that's for sure. I write novels, play video games, and make stop-animation movies—that's about as adventurous as waltzing through a field of flowers. Unless I had someone to push me like Megan and Beatrice did, there was no way I could force myself to jump. I had no choice but to—"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

"—take the penalty."

The next thing he knew, Jonah was wearing a cheesy rubber hat designed to look like a chicken. He was ashamed, of course, but unlike Janice and Emily, he had enough dignity to stay and watch the other team go, so he just lingered on the other end of the hallway. Chris turned to look at the Legendary Locomotives and said,

"Okay, you guys need at least nine people to jump to keep from losing. If you can get ten, then you will win the beaten path up the gorge. If not, then you're stuck with the rough path while the other team gets an easy hike."

The Legendary Locomotives stepped up to the plate this time, and it was obvious who went first. Brock came hurtling through the crowd and out the door, shouting in excitement as he fell. Joey followed quickly behind, giving a similar holler of enjoyment as he went further down into the gorge. There was a brief pause, but then Blake stepped forward in her gray swim shirt and swim shorts, grabbed Fred by his flabby waist, and hoisted him into the air.

"Get me down from here!" he protested.

"Have a nice trip, fatty!"

She tossed him right out the door, and his bloodcurdling screams could be heard loud and clear as he went. Blake ran right to the door and jumped out without hesitation, curling up into a ball as her drop began.

"CANNONBAAAAAAAAAAAAALL!" declared Blake, her voice sounding more masculine than most of the other boys.

The other Legendary Locomotives were quite glad that she was gone, and some even sighed in relief. The next person to come was Danny. He walked slowly up to the Pain Train's door—he looked even more pale than usual without his sweatshirt on—and then turned around to face his teammates.

"See ya later, losers!"

He did a very impressive backflip out the door, and as the rest of the team watched him, he continued to flip in a constant circle on his way down, all the way until he splashed into the river. In a surprising turn of events, it was Meredith who walked up next. Nobody had expected her to even jump considering how delicate and timid she seemed. Even so, she stood with a completely confident and calm look on her face.

"You're really gonna jump into the river? From this height? This is unexpected, I must say." said Chris.

Meredith turned to look at them all and then smiled.

"Do not fret, because I will not be alone. I'll have the help of my animal friends to guide me."

With that mysterious and slightly creepy statement, Meredith took her step off the platform, her arms outstretched on either side of her. All of them in the hallway crowded around the door to watch Meredith as she fell. Ten red-tailed hawks swooped in and grabbed hold of her shoulders and arms; they flapped and squawked, guiding her directly towards the land below in a slow descent.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Jenny

She just stared at the camera, one eyebrow cocked, and stayed like that for at least five seconds before even speaking.

"That may be the absolute weirdest thing I have EVER seen in my life."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Six more of the Legendary Locomotives had yet to jump. Jenny was the next person to step up. She took one look down at the river, sighed deeply, and then said,

"Well, I'm about to die of boredom already... Eh, what the heck?"

With that, she took a jump off the Pain Train and plummeted with a loud yell. Finally, Hannah had no patience left inside of her, and she ran forward. Even her bikini was camo.

"I've always wanted to try this!" she declared with a gleaming grin.

She threw her fists into the air as she leaped off the train, shouting,

"COWABUNGA!"

Once Hannah landed in the river below, Chris looked hastily to the side of the train and saw that they were nearing the end of the Royal Gorge Bridge. He glanced at the remaining four contestants and said,

"We only have another few minutes before we reach the other end, people. Hup hup!"

Joe, Peter, Greta, and Lizzy all looked at each other. Greta held out a hand and waved it at the open door. She was wearing a tight two piece that was about as revealing as was legal.

"If you think that I'm willing to risk my life by plunging myself into a chasm, then you've got another thing coming." she said simply.

Chris brought out yet another chicken hat and held it up to her.

"If you don't you'll have to wear this thing, you know."

Greta looked down at the hat and put on a nasty sneer.

"Now I'm not sure which is worse: jumping over 1,000 feet down into a river, or wearing something as horrible as that on my head."

After another ten or so seconds of dealing with her dilemma, Greta made her decision; she'd rather die by the jump than die of embarrassment on international TV. She walked up to the door, took one look down at the low river, and just barely let herself fall out. Screaming sharply, she fell with her arms swinging this way and that, he golden hair flying upward in a mess. Lizzy moved forward next, a grin broad on her face.

"I've already tried skydiving, so this'll be a cinch!"

With a graceful leap, she threw herself out the train door and went down with joyful laughing and shouting. Only Joe and Peter remained now. Chris looked to their right and saw the end of the bridge coming close into view.

"We don't have much space left for wasting time, guys. You either jump or take the penalty." he said to them both.

Joe and Peter looked at each other. Both of them shrugged for a moment, and then Peter decided to go first. When he launched his heavy figure out the door, he fell without a sound and just kept his burly arms in front of him to keep him in a diving formation. Joe followed quickly behind, and with a cool smile on his face he let the wind take him out; to him, this feeling of drifting through the powerful breeze was breathtaking, and he couldn't get enough of it.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Joe

With dreamy eyes, he stared at the camera and smiled.

"Whoa... That was the coolest feeling of my life. I felt like I was flying high, like nothing could touch me... It was an incredible sensation, dudes; you should really try it."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

There hadn't been a single chicken coming from the Legendary Locomotives, so they got all twelve points. Chris reached behind him and took out his own pack, slapping it on and jumping out the door himself. He pulled the blue cord and then the red chord immediately, and a big white parachute flew out, slowing his fall to a gentle speed. Within minutes his feet touched the rocky ground at the side of the Arkansas River, the Royal Gorge Bridge high above him and the contestants around him. Of course, there was the exception of Fred, who had just barely landed in the river; his face was completely embedded in the muddy edge of the river, and he merely moaned into it. Chris took off the pack and threw it aside, whipping out a megaphone, which he used to blast his voice at the teenagers around him who were drying off, or in Fred's case, cleaning up.

"Alright! The Classic Cabooses had nine jumpers and three chickens, and the Legendary Locomotives had twelve jumpers and no chickens! That makes the score 12-9, which means that the Legendary Locomotives are the winners for the first part of today's challenge!"

The team of twelve on Chris's left cheered loud and clear at the sound of their victory.

"That also means that you guys get to carry the green packs." he said, pointing towards a grouping of twelve green backpacks. "Additionally, you will be using the right path, the one just over there."

He pointed towards a path just twenty feet from him that wasn't very steep and without many jagged rocks or other obstacles. This brought even more cheers from the team. Chris then turned to face the nine Classic Cabooses that were left standing there.

"Classic Cabooses, what can I say?" he said disappointingly. "It seems as though Janice, Emily, and Jonah couldn't handle the pressure up there, because right at this moment they're stuck wearing rubber chicken hats and sulking around in their own shame. Since you lost the first part of the challenge, you'll be taking the blue packs," he said, pointing over to the left side of the river at a group of very heavy-looking blue backpacks, "and the long, rough path up the gorge."

He turned back to face both teams and raised his hands up, gesturing at the Royal Gorge Bridge that stood far above them.

"I'll remind you again; the team that makes it up the gorge and inside the Pain Train—which will be stationed on the other end of the bridge—will get to spend the next three days enjoying the luxurious comforts of the first class car and whatever you find in your packs. The losing team will be stuck back in second class for that time, and will receive the blue packs no matter what. Believe me, if you lose and get stuck with the blue packs at the end of all this, you'll find some not-so-fun stuff in there."

Beatrice took a look across the river at the packs on the other side.

"Um, Chris? Does this mean that we need to swim across the river to even get to our packs?" she said quietly.

Chris grinned and nodded.

"Heheh! Yeah! Your time starts NOW! Go, go, go!"

Both teams ran off towards their packs, eager to win the challenge and that first class train car.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Thankfully, since all of their members were already wearing swimwear, the swim across the cold Arkansas river was a bit more bearable. Everyone managed to get across except for Greg, whose skinny limbs weren't enough to propel himself against the current to the other side. Adrian went in to help him out, although he was reluctant to accept his help; he was the one who pulled him out of the train, so he was still sore over that.

Once all nine of the present Classic Cabooses were on the other end, the blue packs were distributed. Sammy was the first person to walk over and attempt to pick one up. Their looks didn't lie, because the backpacks were really heavy, like someone had stuffed bricks inside of them.

"Man, how are we gonna carry ALL of these packs if we're missing three team members?" Sammy wondered aloud.

Just then, Clarence walked forward calmly and turned to face them all.

"I have an idea." he picked up one of the packs and pointed out the long straps on either side. "We are all aware that not everyone has an equal amount of upper-body strength, so in order to balance the weight out, we should use these straps to tie each of the packs together into one large group. We will then lift up the connected grouping of packs, form ourselves into a cluster beneath it, and hold them up together with equal effort. We will be one strong team, and if we are able to stay in that group and keep moving up the gorge, then we should be able to lift the packs all the way up. Does this sound like an adequate plan?"

For a moment, they all just admired Clarence's brilliance.

"Sounds good to me." said Megan with a shrug.

The Classic Cabooses got to work on the backpacks immediately.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Meanwhile, the other team was already making their way up the side of the Royal Gorge. The packs that they carried weren't lightweight, but they weren't heavy enough to weigh any of their members down. As they marched up the beaten path, they talked and laughed together, discussing the first class car that would be theirs in the future.

"Dude, I saw inside of that thing when we were looking around for Danny, and it was so awesome! Everything was full of luxury, man!" said Joey in awe.

Brock did a quick fist pump and added,

"That crib is OURS! OH YEAH!"

Greta, on the other hand, was actually quite unhappy. Her hair was wet and tangled, her arms and legs were sore from the impact on the water, and the mud on the side of the river had smudged her swimsuit. For her, life couldn't possibly get worse. Jenny shared the same idea, because she hardly even wanted to be there at all.

"Why are you people so happy?" she muttered, gazing at Joey and Brock with a look of mixed confusion and jealousy. "We just got herded off a train and fell over 1,000 feet into a cold river. Now we've got to carry a bunch of packs up the side of this dusty gorge, and you're HAPPY?"

Joey and Brock couldn't hear her comments, though, because they were having too much fun to notice. Suddenly, she felt a hand grab her bare waist and she jumped, turning around to see Danny grinning at her impishly.

"Oh, if it isn't Ninja Kid." she grumbled at him.

He walked up next to her and put a ghostly pale arm over her shoulder.

"Hey, why so down, girl? You should be happy; once we win this challenge, we'll be sharing the same train car."

Jenny lifted a fist and swung a punch at his nose, but Danny bent over swiftly, making her just barely miss. She threw another punch, but he jumped back to dodge her a second time.

"No need for violence, now..." he said in a dark voice.

Once again, Jenny started questioning herself if eight weeks in hell was worth the million dollars.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

The nine of the Classic Cabooses worked together to lift the flat raft-like body of the connected packs, forming a crowd underneath them, and supporting them with equal strength. Now they were ready to head up the gorge. Unfortunately, the upcoming terrain was fairly rocky and crooked, so it would prove to be a challenge. Clarence was in front, and as soon as it seemed they were ready, he declared,

"Okay, everyone, now we must move!"

They took steps forward at a steady pace, going up the surprisingly steep edge. It was a very costly effort, what with the heavy weights above them and the contestant hot breath on the back of your neck. Still, they pressed their perseverance buttons and kept on moving.

Dylan, who was standing on the edge of the group, looked to his right at the other side of the Royal Gorge, watching the Legendary Locomotives as they were making their way along the path. It was actually kind of amusing, because he noticed that they were all scattered along the path, some of them way behind and some far ahead. He turned his head forward and shouted up to Clarence,

"Hey, Clarence! The Legendary Locomotives ur all scattered an' such! Look over thar!"

The other group members joined Clarence in watching the other team while they walked. Dylan was very correct, because they were spread out too far to communicate with each other. Of course, nobody on the other team noticed this, but they would soon enough.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Within a half hour, Joey and Brock had reached the top of the gorge, and soon they found themselves walking right towards the open door of the Pain Train, which sat right next to the Royal Gorge Bridge. They lifted their hands and hollered.

"This is so awesome!" they shouted together.

"We got here first, man!" said Joey as he ran up to Chris with Brock by his side.

Chris held out a hand to block the doorway.

"Hold on, buddy! I said that your entire team has to get up here, dude."

Both Joey and Brock froze for a moment. Then they rushed back to the edge of the Royal Gorge and looked down. Most of their teammates were following close behind, but there were four others that were lolling around on the path, and they were way too far from the rest of the team. A few seconds later, Joe came up onto the end of the path and stood in front of Joey and Brock.

"So, where's the other team at, huh?" he said, looking around them.

He turned, squinting into the deep gorge. He spotted the Classic Cabooses coming up close to their right. They were grouped into one cluster, carrying the packs over their heads in a clump; also, they were only fifty meters from the top. While they were watching the other team closely, Peter came up onto the edge and took a deep breath of air, his beefy chest expanding and contracting.

"That was good!" he declared in a gruff voice.

That was about as expansive as Peter's vocabulary could reach, because he didn't say anything other than that. Brock turned to Peter and waved to get his attention.

"Yo, Peter!" he said, catching the body builder's eye. "Run down the gorge and grab those four down there, okay?"

Peter shrugged and said,

"Yeah."

They watched as Peter ran at full speed down the steep slope, the muscles on his legs rippling, the veins pulsing visibly.

Meanwhile, way down inside the gorge, the four slackers continued to walk up slowly. Unfortunately, they did not notice how close the Classic Cabooses were getting to winning. Jenny and Danny were lagging behind, what with Danny continually trying to interact with her. Meredith followed behind them, merely strolling at a comfortable pace to give her time to talk with her new animal friends: the red-tailed hawks. Then there was Fred, who was so wiped out that he was just barely dragging himself and his pack up the rising dirt and stone path, hardly accustomed to exercise.

Back up at the top, the other members of the Legendary Locomotives were almost all there already. Half of them were watching intensely at the Classic Cabooses as they marched their way slowly up the side, gaining height quicker than they thought. The other half was looking down at Peter as he raced back down into the chasm. Peter reached Jenny and Danny first, and without hesitation he hoisted them up, one over each shoulder, and then kept running. He caught up with Meredith and managed to hold onto her as well. Lastly, he came to Fred and picked him up, setting him on his back next to Meredith.

It was an impressive feat just carrying them all, but now he had to get back up the sloped ground. He looked like he was starting to struggle after the first twenty meters, and there were still another fifty more to go, so instead of just standing around, the Legendary Locomotives took action and raced down the slope to meet him.

As a team, they pushed Peter forward while he walked, supporting him from behind. Now they were in a very close race with the other team; it was their turn to catch up, and although they were slightly behind, they still got an easier path. In other words, the stakes were pretty high for both of them.

The Classic Cabooses actually made it up to the top before the Legendary Locomotives, and they herded their supplies into the Pain Train just as the other team reached the top. They cheered and hollered, raising their hands to the azure sky above in happiness. The Legendary Locomotives were rather baffled at the sight of seeing the other team walking through the door to the Pain Train first, and as they walked up to Chris, Blake came forward and shouted,

"How did all them NOOBS get up here so fast?! They must've cheated! I swear they did!"

Chris shook his head and put on a white smile.

"I must say, I'm quite shocked myself, Blake. I didn't actually think they stood a chance! I guess you guys are the noobs this time."

Infuriated, Blake rushed forward with two chunky fists aimed to punch Chris's lights out; it took both Brock and Peter to hold her back while she tried to attack the handsome host. Chris turned around to face the Classic Cabooses, who were making an excited ruckus in the entrance hallway, and declared,

"In a surprising turn of events, it looks like the Classic Cabooses managed to pull out of their tough spot and prevail against the team with all the advantages! Quite an impressive victory, I might add. YOU guys can go find your three chickens and head on into—"

All of a sudden, Chris stopped speaking and paused, staring hard at the group. Lizzy poked her head out of the crowd to get a look at him for a moment.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

At first, Chris remained with his face drawn into a frown, but just a few moments passed by before he began to smile.

"Chris?" she repeated.

Chris pointed at them and said,

"I did a little headcount and noticed that you're missing a caboose!"

The members of the Classic Cabooses took a look around for who was missing. It was Beatrice who realized it first.

"Where's Greg?"

As if on cue, Greg's skinny, farmer-tanned figure came up on the side of the nearby tracks. He was rubbing his legs with a pained look on his face. Once he caught both teams staring at him, he straightened up and said,

"My legs were sore, okay? It's your fault for not noticing I was missing."

In a fraction of a second, the joyous looks on the Classic Cabooses' faces were replaced with anger, and the exact opposite happened for the Legendary Locomotives, their faces splitting into broad grins. Chris gestured at them suddenly, his own face in a grin as well.

"It looks like we have our winners! I give you the Legendary Locomotives!"

The team burst into great cheers of ecstasy, throwing their hands up in a similar fashion as the Classic Cabooses had done just thirty seconds earlier.

"You guys should probably head on in to the first class car! Go and get settled, why don't you?"

They rushed forward and crammed inside the first hallway, squeezing past the Classic Cabooses and heading towards the luxury room that awaited them. The angered team continued to stare at Greg with fury at his complaints over his aching legs. Greg just stood a safe distance away, looking slightly nervous about joining his team in the following three days of second class treatment. Then the silence was broken when Emily came running into the scene, grappling onto Megan instantly like a big blubbering starfish.

"MEGAHAHAHAN! Y-YOU'RE ALIHIVE! THANK THE LORD! I WAS SO W-WORRIED ABOUT Y-YOU!"

She just burst into tears over her friend's shoulder, unable to believe still that Megan had risked her life jumping out of a moving train into a span of 1,000 of falling. Everyone else just stared at her in surprise; it was quite a suddenly occurring moment and not exactly the prettiest. It was rather sickening and slightly annoying, actually. Did she ever stop crying? Then they noticed the chicken hat placed on her head and remembered that she wasn't one of the jumpers, and they just glowered at her instead.

"Classic Cabooses, I'm still not sure what to say..." Chris murmured, making them all lower their heads slightly. "Being the losers, you do realize that you'll have to stay in second class for another three days, use whatever's in your backpacks to do some nasty jobs around the train, AND send someone home."

At this they all groaned, which made Chris even happier. He pointed down at their massive pile of tied blue backpacks in the hallway and said,

"Go and gather your other two chickens, because each of you will have to take a pack and use the supplies inside to do some cleaning around the Pain Train. Heheheheh! Man, I love assigning this stuff!"

While Megan and Emily went off to find the other two chickens, the rest of the team checked out their packs, finding items such as paper towels, all-purpose cleaning spray, wipes, toilet scrubbers, etc. They sure didn't have a fun evening coming up.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

When Megan entered room 06 she saw Jonah lying on his bed, writing something on a green notebook, his glasses far down on his nose so that he was peering through them like a stereotypical librarian might.

"Hey, what's up?" she said to him, just peeking in the door.

"Nothing much." he replied, not moving his gaze from the book.

"We lost the Hop of Faith thingy, so now we have to clean the Pain Train. So, yeah, you have to come out and grab one of the packs so you can find out what to do."

Jonah sighed, looked up at his chicken hat, making himself feel worse.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Jonah

"Never in my life would I think that'd I'D be the loser wearing the chicken hat. Being here now and having to wear this thing is utterly humiliating, I'll tell you that. I'm not going to disappoint my team for our next challenge, I swear; I wouldn't want to be one of the first to leave, it would be just too embarassing."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Janice

"I wish that I hadn't been such a sissy and that I would've set a good example for the others, but now I guess I really am a chicken."

She scowled for a moment, but then glanced back at the camera and added,

"I hope those Legendary Locomotives are having fun with their luxury!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

"Oh yeah!"

Meanwhile, in the first class car, the Legendary Locomotives were indeed having a great amount of fun. The fridges had been emptied of all caffeinated drinks, and the cabinets had been raided, the junk food completely gone from inside. The surround-sound speakers in each corner of the room were blasting music, and everyone was talking, laughing, and eating. In other words, they were having an epic party.

"To the Legendary Locomotives!" declared Hannah, lifting a can of Dr. Pepper.

The others also raised their beverages, declaring,

"TO THE LEGENDARY LOCOMOTIVES!"

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

After a hard night of humiliation and cleaning the Pain Train, the Classic Cabooses gathered in the dining hall for the main event of the evening: the elimination. Chris stood before them, and they watched him intensely while they sat, three at each table. Behind him was a wooden crate, and they waited carefully to find out what was inside.

"Passengers," began Chris, "what you are about to experience now is the Burning Ceremony."

This got a startled look from most of them, and Chris shook his head with a slight grin.

"No, you're not getting burned in any way, shape, or form. It's a figure of speech, people!"

He reached behind him and reached inside the crate, pulling out a large sack. He then reached inside of that and pulled out a large black piece of what looked like a coal chunk the size of his head. But when they looked closely, they could see that it was actually Chris's head carved expertly out of a lump of coal.

"This is how things will work. I will say your names aloud and toss the lump of coal that belongs to you and you will catch it, but only if I say your name. I will continue to give out the lumps of well-carved coal heads until there is only one left. That person who does not receive their own head will have it thrown into the furnace, and they will leave Total Drama National Tour forever. And you can never come back. EVER."

There was a sudden intake of breath from some of them, and then Chris continued.

"The loser will be forced to take the Hop of Shame; you will take the jump off the Pain Train, leaving yourself behind to continue with your life somewhere else."

The stakes were higher than ever, and every one of them waited in dreadful silence.

"Now, I would like all of you to go one by one into the Confession Can to vote for who you want to leave."

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

About ten minutes later, everyone had cast their votes, and it was time to reveal the loser. Chris, while he had been waiting, had set each contestant's coal head up on a long rack above the small furnace in the dining hall. The Legendary Locomotives were on the top shelf, and the Classic Cabooses were on the bottom. Once everyone had settled back down in their chairs, Chris walked up to the rack and said,

"We will now begin the Burning Ceremony."

He reached up, paused for a second, and then grabbed Clarence's ever-neutral coal head from the rack.

"Clarence."

He tossed the head to Clarence, who caught it and smiled at it.

"Adrian."

Once Adrian had received his head, he tipped his hat at Chris and grinned underneath its shade.

"Grace, Kelsey."

He threw them at the same time, and both girls caught it squealing with delight and hugging each other.

"Megan."

As the others before her, Megan caught the head and smiled with pleasure.

"Dylan."

When Dylan caught the head, he set it down and clapped his sooty hands together.

"Thank you so very much, Chris." he said gratefully.

"Beatrice."

Beatrice was slightly alarmed by the flying object, and it bounced out of her arms, clattering on the ground after the incomplete catch. With her usually pale cheeks rather flushed, she bent down and picked up her own coal head, setting it down on the table in front of her.

"Sammy."

Sammy gave a whoop after catching his coal head, raising a fist in the air and twirling it. Chris looked at the three chickens of the room: Janice, Jonah, and Emily. Then there was also Greg as well. Janice looked fearful for her spot in the game as well as Jonah, and Emily just looked as freaked out as ever, her body shaking with excess fear. Greg seemed merely unsatisfied with the circumstances and was scowling at Chris. A few intense seconds later, Chris lifted Jonah's coal head and tossed it to him, and he caught it while wearing a relieved expression.

"Jonah." he said, watching as Jonah grinned with his teeth, gleaming with braces.

"Janice." he added, tossing Janice's coal head to the tall seventeen-year-old.

She caught it and her blood-red lips curled into a small smile. Now only Emily and Greg remained. Emily watched the host with anxiety-filled eyes while Greg stared at him with pure determination, as though he were trying to mentally force Chris into giving him his head. Chris held both Emily's and Greg's coal heads in his hands, bouncing them on his palms and looking at them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, these are the final two coals of the evening. Whichever player does NOT receive their coal head must immediately walk down the hallway and take the Hop of Shame, leaving the Pain Train, and ceasing to exist in Total Drama National Tour. The final coal head goes to..."

A scene of intense waiting and anticipation followed as everyone in the room stared fixedly on Emily and Greg. Chris held out a finger, going over both of them, his face surprisingly serious. Somewhere in the background, a dramatic tune was playing, adding greatly to the coming moment of truth. Finally, after waiting for an entire thirty seconds, Chris lifted Greg's head and threw it unexpectedly at its owner, knocking him in the face with it and causing him to fall out of his chair.

"Greg." he murmured.

Emily burst into violent tears on the spot, and she was barely able to watch as Chris took her head and fed it to the flames inside the small furnace. The rest of the contestants watched it burn away until it was just a dusty, white, disfigured lump that no longer resembled her head.

"Emily, it's time to take the Hop of Shame." said Chris, making her bawl even harder.

Megan stood up and walked over to Emily's side, making her stand up.

"Emily, it's okay. It's gonna be okay."

Step by step, Megan led her friend down the hallway, and the others belonging to the Classic Cabooses followed behind. Chris walked ahead of the two of them, yanking open the steel entrance door to the Pain Train. They were moving again, and outside was just plain desert, flashing by at a blurred speed.

Emily desperately clawed at the sides of the door, pushing back and screaming.

"I'M NOT JUMPING! DON'T M-MAKE M-ME JUMP! PLEEEEEEAAAAAASE!"

Megan turned her around to look at her.

"Emily, look at me." she said firmly, getting the crying girl's attention. "You're going to be strong, okay? Just like I said when we first got here, you have to be strong. After you jump, go right until you reach Cañon City, and then get a ride on the metro back to Kaukauna." she then pulled a wad of dollar bills from her pocket and handed them to Emily. "Here's money for food and the trip there. You'll be perfectly safe without me for a while; I know you can do this, you just have to trust me."

Emily paused, her eyes red and puffy, but finally she agreed. She embraced Megan in a tight hug, cried a little more into her shoulder, but then turned around and faced the open door. She was clutching too hard onto the sides of the door to make herself jump, and eventually Chris got impatient, because he gave her a sudden shove, sending her out the door with a shriek, forcing her to take the Hop of Shame. They could hear her desperate cries for at least another minute before they finally became too far away to hear. Megan sighed and leaned up against the wall, looking gloomy, but also glowering at Chris out of the corner of her eye.

"I sure hope she doesn't panic." she murmured concernedly, still glaring at Chris slightly.

With that, Chris turned back to the now eleven members of the Classic Cabooses.

"Alright, you guys! It's been a long, rough night, so I suggest you go put back those heads on the rack above the furnace and get some rest. You still have another three days until the next challenge, so make yourselves comfortable in that time if you'd like, or just do whatever the heck you want. Just make sure that you don't wander off into the first class car, because we WILL catch you. On that happy note, goodnight!"

Chris then left the hallway to retire to his private room just past the first class car. The Classic Cabooses went to their left, going into each of their rooms to do whatever they felt like doing. Even while they remained doing their own separate activities, every one of them had their minds on the competition; so far, it looked like things weren't so well for the Classic Cabooses, and they'd fail horribly if nothing could be done about it.

But still, they had hope.

* * *

**So, what did you think of the Hop of Faith? If you'd like to see how the rest of the challenges go, then check back soon, because you can count on the fact that I'll be posting chapter four relatively soon. Thank you, and goodbye for now!**

**~Pastrinator64**


	4. Do You Want Fries With That?

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from Total Drama National Tour. I greatly appreciate those of you who've kept reading, and I'm looking for some feedback right now from you guys; if you don't mind, it's encouraged.**

**By the way, anything that I do here is really what I do in real life; just saying this before you watch some of my... Er... Quirks.**

**Now then, how about we get on with the story?**

* * *

_Chapter 4: Do You Want Fries With That?_

Chris stood before the train and faced the camera.

"Last time on Total Drama National Tour," he began, "our twenty-four contestants were introduced to their very first challenge. To most of their horror, they needed to jump off the Pain Train while it moved over the 1,053-foot-high Royal Gorge Bridge in Colorado. After landing in the Arkansas River below, they had to carry their packs up the Royal Gorge back into the Pain Train, which waited nearby, in order to win. Even though the Classic Cabooses were under the worst conditions, they pulled together and managed to carry their packs all the way up the gorge while the Legendary Locomotives were spread out dangerously far. Their mistake almost cost them the win, and if it wasn't for Greg and his sore legs, the Legendary Locomotives would've been put on the chopping block. In the end, it was Emily the phobic freak who took the Hop of Shame, much to Megan's disappointment. Now we move on to the second challenge; it will test our contestant's stealthy abilities, and believe me, it is HARD! Get in on the excitement right now, here on TOTAL... DRAMA... NATIONAL TOUR!"

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

The second class cabins were rather quiet in the morning. The eleven members of the Classic Cabooses were sleeping peacefully, warm sunlight was shining through the window, and there was nothing to disturb them...

And then there was the sound of a voice being blasted through a megaphone.

"RISE AND SHINE, EVERYONE!"

Inside room 05, Greg stuffed his face harder into his pillow, groaning and muttering into it. Sammy yawned and stretched his small arms while wondering what had woken them up from their perfectly undisturbed slumber. Adrian's eyes snapped open and he looked around suddenly, making his hat fly off and onto the floor,

"Wuzzat?!" he cried, looking very startled.

Clarence hardly reacted at all. Instead, he merely sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes, and then lifted his covers, climbing down to the floor. As he was putting on a shirt without complaining even once or showing signs of annoyance, Greg rolled over in bed and listened with a pained expression to Chris's unending rants through the megaphone.

"Ugh... This had better not start like this every day, or I'll crack." he grumbled, his eyes drooping slightly.

* * *

The people in room 06 were having the same idea. When Jonah's eyes snapped open he could hear Chris's voice echoing extremely loud through the hallway. When he looked over at the digital clock on the other side of the room, he saw that it was 7:00 in the morning. He tried to bury himself back under his covers and attempted to fall back asleep, but with all the noise outside he couldn't even dream of getting back to bed. So, with a tired sigh, he stood up out of bed and started getting ready.

Dylan, however, was bright and cheery. He too got out of bed, and hummed a tune to himself as he was getting dressed. Jonah looked over at him in slight surprise and said,

"You like getting up this early?"

As the ranch boy was putting on a pair of overalls, he turned to face the small dude and replied,

"I git up earlier than this back home, so this ain't nothin!"

Janice growled and pulled the pillow over her head, very reluctant to get out of bed.

"Does he HAVE to wake us up so early in the morning? Doesn't he understand beauty sleep, or what?" she declared, rolling over to face the wall and hopefully shut out even a bit of sound.

"Nope." said Megan groggily from the bunk above Jonah's.

She turned herself to face the other three. She noticed that scrawny little Jonah was actually doing sit-ups on the ground.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Jonah paused to look at her

"Sit-ups." he stated simply, and then continued on with his exercise.

"Why?"

He paused a second time and said,

"Because I want to. Is that okay?"

"Yeah, it's fine, just wondering."

The conversation ended there, and Megan decided to finally get out of bed. With all of her cabin mates moving around and making noise as they got dressed and prepared for the morning, plus the loud shouts coming from Chris, Janice no longer had enough patience for sleep. She too gave in and got up, getting ready for the day ahead. Once again, she wondered how the people in the first class cabins were doing with their sound-proof walls to block out all distracting noise.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

The other team was asleep in their luxury recliners, fluffy quilts put over them and non-lumpy pillows to rest their heads on. Only Hannah was awake; she usually got up early out of habit, and was in the corner, cleaning off _Killer Kim _with a piece of cloth.

This was the one time when Jenny was able to relax without anyone bugging her. It was a fine, soundless, warm sleep that was enjoyable even to her. She couldn't think of anything bad about first class. It was worth the effort in the first challenge, that was for sure. Then something just had to come along and wake her up, because a few moments later, Jenny felt somebody move past her. Her eyes opened and she saw Danny standing there, looking down at her with that evil grin.

"What do you want?" she muttered, pulling the pillow closer to her cheek.

"Just coming in to check on you." he said, his grin broadening.

He moved closer to her and reached out with his hands, getting too close for comfort. Before he could even touch her, she lifted a hand to stop him.

"You can flirt with my corpse after I die." Jenny commented sarcastically.

Danny stopped, but his smile never wavered.

"Have it your way, then."

"Yes, let's have it my way."

Even as Danny walked away, he kept a gleaming eye on her. Jenny sighed, burying her face into her pillow again so that she may fall back asleep. She fell into a peaceful slumber for a blissful three hours, but was woken back up again by even more noise. Now the other contestants were waking up and dressing, going through doors, and preparing for the day. She didn't understand why they couldn't all just stay in their recliners.

Fred, however, thought the exact same thing. If he had his way, he would sleep away the coming days in his chair, undisturbed. Still, there was no way he could sleep with all the sounds around him, so instead he lifted a fat finger and pressed down on the button positioned on the coffee table near his chair, and the ring of a speaker turning on could be heard. While holding the button down, Fred leaned over and spoke into the speaker next to it.

"A pancake stack with strawberries, whipped cream, maple syrup, and butter."

He let go of the button, and the speaker shut off. A few minutes later, a waitress came in the room, balancing a stack of warm pancakes with strawberries, whipped cream, maple syrup, and butter in her hands. She set the plate down on the coffee table and handed Fred a fork and knife, a white smile on her face, and then departed from the room.

Several other members of the Legendary Locomotives looked at the pancake platter with shocked faces. Then, all at once, they rushed back to their seats and started ordering a bunch of food. Within minutes, breakfast plates were being brought in by a storm of waitresses. And the FOOD! It was excellent!

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Meanwhile, in the regular dining car, the eleven Classic Cabooses sat at the splintery wooden tables of four. After waiting an entire half hour for their food, Chef Hatchet finally came in through the door to the kitchen, carrying a line of trays on his arms. He went from table to table, setting down the food. Greg looked down at his and observed that it was comprised of slop, slop, slop, slop, and more slop.

"You will eat this food and NOT complain about its quality! When you eat in this car, you do NOT get five-star service—the first class room is what you're looking for, but only if you're actually willing to work for it! I do NOT work over a steaming hot stove and cook hard for you ungrateful little imps so that I may receive complaints, so I'd better NOT hear anything negative from you! IS THAT CLEAR?!"

Although all of them wanted to comment about his overuse of the word "not", none of them felt like being whacked with the edge of a kitchen knife. As expected, the following days on the Pain Train were very much like the first for the Classic Cabooses—long, torturous, and altogether boring.

* * *

And then came the third day. Chris awoke very early in the morning once more, and shared his blaring voice with the rest of the contestants, including the ones in first-class. Now that the third day had come, it was time to begin the next challenge. He gathered up all twenty-three teenagers and herded them into the dining room. Once they were all seated, he stood in front of them and declared,

"Good morning, everyone! The third day of Total Drama National Tour has come, and you know what that means!"

In the back, Jenny grumbled,

"It means we can get on with it already."

Chris glowered at her for a moment, but then continued.

"Your second challenge will take place in Blackfoot, Idaho. We will be arriving shortly, so make sure you're prepared!"

Barely even ten seconds later, the Pain Train came to a halt, and Chris led the two teams outside by the train tracks. They were just standing in front of a regular train station, so it was unsure of what the challenge may be just upon inspection. Additionally, they all noticed that it was VERY dark out, and so Beatrice raised a hand.

"Chris, what time is ihhhhhhhiiiiiiit?" she said, failing to stifle a yawn.

"It's one in the morning." Chris replied simply.

Around him, everyone groaned and started complaining about the early wakeup call. Chris shushed them all and said,

"Hey, we can't do this challenge in broad daylight! Just think about the trouble I'd be in if I was held responsible for anything that happens in there."

"In where?" murmured Adrian, looking sleepy as well.

"All questions will be answered soon." said Chris, shaking his hands at the cowboy. "But first, we'll just be taking a short walk to get to our destination. Everyone follow me!"

Suddenly, Chris's expensive red buggy pulled up with Chef driving it, and Chris hopped in.

"You guys might want to keep up!"

With that, Chef pushed down on the gas pedal and the two of them were off. The rest of the boys and girls ran after them, trying to keep up as well as possible.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Fred

"Just why, Chris? WHY?"

* * *

Thankfully, Chris was good to his word, because they only had to run for two minutes or so before the buggy in front of them came to a stop. Everyone was winded from the sudden sprint and the constant fumes coming from the back of the vehicle, and there was even a person flat on the ground—Fred, obviously. Chris jumped off the buggy and stood before them all.

"Welcome to the Idaho Potato Museum!" he declared, gesturing behind him.

The building facing the back of Chris was only one floor, but very wide and long, with gray bricks making up its walls. The building itself appeared rather boring, and the only thing interesting about it was that a gargantuan model potato with lots of sauerkraut and butter was sitting there, right near the entrance, looking quite impressive even in the dark, only illuminated by a nearby streetlight.

"Now I will explain the challenge. I like to call it, "Do You Want Fries With That?"!" he said, getting several strange looks from the contestants. "Both teams will be trying to obtain a specific potato deep in the lowest basement level of the museum. You each will pick a hunter to go find the potato and bring it back to the Pain Train for the second part of the challenge."

"What kind of potato are we looking for?" asked Lizzy.

"This potato," explained Chris, a smile on his face, "is the most expensive potato to grow and buy, and originated in France. It is called La Bonnotte, and sells for $322 per pound; as you can imagine, this is a very rare and high-quality potato. There is a La Bonnotte on display in this museum, and it'll be pretty obvious once you catch sight of it."

From the front, Hannah grinned and said,

"Is that all?"

Chris shook his head and kept on smiling, enjoying the sound of the increasingly difficult challenge as he went on.

"Far from it, Hannah! Inside the museum are several security guards and systems to keep intruders from stealing any rare items and pawning them off somewhere else. While each team's hunter sneaks through the museum in search of the La Bonnotte, the rest of the team will distract security to make sure that their hunters go unseen. Now, make sure that you don't actually get arrested, because that'd be REALLY bad for lawsuits."

This comment caused a lot of nervous looks to spread across their faces, and they exchanged glances with one another.

"Continuing on, the team that finds the La Bonnotte and brings it back here will have the advantage in their hands already for the second part of this challenge; in other words, the higher-quality potato the better. Trust me, you definitely want to get that potato first, because if you get there and it's already gone, you'll have to take another potato from the museum back with you. First, before you all go rushing in, pick your hunter."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Hannah immediately raised her hand, jumping up and down, and declared,

"I'll be the hunter! I'm, like, SUPER stealthy and quiet, especially when I'm hunting!"

"Shouted Hannah at the top of her lungs..." muttered Jenny.

Then Danny stepped in and glared down at Hannah, his eyes shaded by his black hood.

"Unless you plan on hunting a potato with antlers and hooves, I suggest that I take the role of the hunter."

Hannah glared back and replied,

"I'm really quick on my feet, F.Y.I."

"You may run, but you can't hide." he said, smiling broadly.

Hannah gritted her teeth and looked up at Danny with abhorrence.

"Oh yeah? You want to fight for it?!"

Danny pulled down his hood and cracked his neck, grinning evilly.

"Sure, why not? It'll give me a chance to warm up before I hunt."

"Oooohhhh! You're ON!"

Within seconds, both Hannah and Danny moved away from their team members and stood in front of the Idaho Potato Museum, ready to duke it out. Apparently, it seemed that they both knew taekwondo, because they were going back and forth, punches and kicks of many kinds being thrown. While the rest of the Legendary Locomotives tried to figure out how to select a hunter, the Classic Cabooses were actually working as a team.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

They stood in a close huddle to discuss the election of their hunter.

"Okay," said Adrian, "who here'd like ta become the hunter?"

"Well, I believe that we should pick one of our smaller group members." suggested Clarence, calmly gesturing at Sammy, Beatrice, Greg, and Jonah. "Now, which one of you can be very furtive?"

The four of their smallest members looked at each other. Greg immediately threw up his hands and said,

"There's no way I'm risking my life to do this. Do you know what could happen to me if I got caught?"

There was a slight grumble from the other team members, but Clarence merely looked at the other three.

"Would any of you like to volunteer to be the hunter?"

Sammy raised a hand and shouted,

"Oh! Can I do it? It'd be SO COOL!"

Clarence folded his hands and said,

"Sammy, I know that you would love to volunteer, but we need to choose someone who is very, very quiet and able to stay quiet while infiltrating the museum. You might have just too much excitement to keep muffled up. I think that you'd do well on distracting security, though."

This made Sammy smile with pride, and he put his hands on his hips, posing boldly. Clarence moved on, looking from Jonah to Beatrice, examining them both.

"Beatrice, is it okay if I'm honest with you?" he asked.

Beatrice nodded.

"You aren't the most adventurous of people, so would it be alright to sit you out if you're too nervous to take the role?" he said politely.

She nodded again, and seemed rather relieved. Clarence's eyes fell on Jonah.

"Jonah, are you able to stay quiet and sneak through the building?"

He paused for a moment, contemplating the danger factor, and when he looked around at his fellow teammates he knew that none of them would be willing to do it or were just too big. He looked back at Clarence and gave him the thumbs up.

"Alright, I'll do it." he said, inevitable nerves in his voice, a weak smile on his face.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

While Danny was thrusting his fists and feet of fury, Hannah continued to dodge and block them all. She had faster reflexes, but didn't have as much martial arts training, so it was a defensive against offensive match. Danny had such great endurance, and he refused to stop his attacks; he planned on wearing her down until she took a misstep. Finally, it happened, and Hannah fell for a fake-out punch from Danny, and in a fraction of a second, Danny's fist connected with her cheek. A nasty smack could be heard, and she went flying backwards, sprawling eagle-spread in the grass.

The Legendary Locomotives all gathered around her in a tight circle, groaning at the state of her face. There was a nasty bruise on her left cheek, and was swelling, turning a sickly purple. One of her teeth lay in the grass nearby. Danny stood over her for a single moment, but then slid the hood back over his head and jerked his head up at the rest of his team, making them back away.

"Does anyone object to me being the hunter?"

They shook their heads quickly, making him smile enough so that you could see the glint from his one silver tooth.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Chris walked in front of the teams and looked at them with pleasure. To his amusement, he saw that some of them already looked miserable, especially with Danny and Hannah looking daggers at each other.

"Now that you have chosen your hunters, all of you head on into the museum."

They all made their way up the nearby steps and stood in front of the large double doors. Both of them were locked from the inside.

"Um, Chris? How are we supposed to get inside? It's locked." Greta pointed out.

Then Chris walked forward with an employee access card and swiped it in the card slot fastened to the door handles. There was a light beeping sound, and then the handles were pulled, letting the door slide open easily. They stepped inside the Idaho Potato Museum and looked around a bit.

The inside was decked out in stands, tables, and displays, all holding different types of potatoes of different colors, shapes, and sizes. There were signs describing each of them, and the entire space was cluttered. So, in other words, it was rather boring.

"Remember, make sure you grab that La Bonnotte without getting caught by security. It's on the bottom floor, so you might have some difficulty as you go farther down. No pressure!"

Danny and Jonah stepped forward. Towering over Jonah, Danny gave him a wicked smile. Jonah furrowed his eyebrows, nodding slightly at the slippery snake. Both walked forward, moving up the room until they reached the split hallway at the other end. Jonah took the left hall and Danny went right, both disappearing around their corners. Chris turned to look at the others and whispered,

"You guys might want to find the guards and keep them as far up in the museum as possible, because otherwise your hunters are dead meat. Go!"

Both teams rushed forward, going their separate ways once they came to the hallways. The challenge had officially begun.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Danny crept down the hall, his body sidling along the wall slowly in order to keep himself as hidden as possible. He kept sliding, but suddenly stepped on a secret pressure plate; a couple dozen arrows flew from out of the wall above him, but he had reacted moments before, jumping backwards to avoid the falling projectiles. He smiled at the long arrows lodged in the floor and scooped them all up, carrying twelve of their thin bodies in each hand. They'd come in handy for later.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Meanwhile, Jonah found himself walking silently down a rather normal hallway. He too remained as quiet as Danny, not wanting to be arrested before his life got interesting. As he continued his slow steps, his foot landed on a tile that was instantly pressed down into the floor. Before Jonah realized what was happening, a cage sprang up from beneath him and trapped him, making a loud clang that echoed through the museum.

There were the shouts of men coming from the way he had come, and Jonah panicked. He tried to fit through the bars, but even he couldn't slip out. He could see the lock on the other side of the cage, although the key was nowhere to be seen. As the sounds of thundering footsteps got closer, Jonah jammed his hand in his pocket and hastily pulled out the purple pocket comb that he always kept with him. He reached around and inserted it into the lock, twisting it quickly, and upon what seemed like luck, the lock opened with a click. He wrenched the door open and made a beeline down the hallway. Thankfully, the guards eventually could be heard going another way, so he had just barely made it out alive. Being a dweeb had its perks, apparently.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

The other members of the Classic Cabooses were baffled at the sight of the open cage down that one hallway. How did that guy escape a tight metal cage like that? Adrian stepped forward and whispered,

"C'mon, guys and gals, we gotta follow Jonah and make sure he doesn't get caught!"

With that, they continued on down the hallway. The rest of the hallway was rather bare, except for a few pit traps and plaques about the history of potato farming. Then came the end of the hallway where a flight of stairs lowered into floor B1. At the base of the flight were two guards, both very muscular and both carrying heavy-duty flashlights.

Clarence stood in front, and turned his head to them, putting a finger to his lips to signal for their silence. They all took slow steps, making sure not to disturb security. Just as they were behind the guards, Grace looked up and saw Jonah disappearing around a corner.

"Look! It's Jonah!" she shouted, pointing in that direction excitedly.

Megan clamped a hand over her mouth to shut her up, but it was too late; both guards whirled around and lifted their flashlights, running forward with unstoppable speed. A loud fight scene occurred, and within about twenty seconds, both guards had been knocked down the stairs, lying on their backs and wheezing feebly. More shouts came from the room ahead, and the blinding lights of flashlights filled the air, coming dangerously close.

This would be one heck of a struggle.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

The other team passed by arrow marks in the ground and were relieved when they found that Danny was not lying there dead. Continuing on, they passed by some more arrow traps and then found a flight of stairs going down another floor. At the bottom of the stairs were two guards with large flashlights in their hands, which were as big as clubs.

The team crept down the stairs in two lines, taking each step together so as not to make noise. Finally, just as they were behind the guards, one of them turned around and shouted in surprise, attracting the other. They tackled both guards and used the flashlights to knock them out, making sure to use their numbers to their advantage.

Just then, Hannah's rather bruised face lit up and she whispered excitedly,

"I have an idea!"

She explained her plan, and almost all of them thought it was too risky. But, with a bit of persuasion, a.k.a. _Killer Kim, _they all agreed. In a few hasty minutes, the uniforms of the two guards had been taken from their unconscious selves and were put on Peter and Brock, making them look almost exactly like guards.

"Ugh... This uniform reeks of B.O." muttered Brock, crinkling his dark nose.

Nevertheless, both of the "guards" were sent off into the next room. This room held many different technologies having to do with advancement in potato farming, so the two of them had to walk carefully to avoid hitting anything. There were about five different guards with flashlights stationed around the room, all marching in straight lines with unwaveringly stern expressions.

Brock and Peter split, each going to two of the guards; they crept up from behind and then smacked them on the head with their flashlights. They went out without a single sound, too shocked to cry out in pain before they collapsed. Still, the thud of the flashlights was enough to attract the attention of the other three guards, and within seconds, the triplet was coming at them fast.

Brock thought fast and threw his heavy flashlight with all his might, and it connected with the guard on the left's nose, knocking him to the floor in a daze. The guard on the right was coming even faster, and as he was getting very close to Peter, the muscleman just jumped up and body slammed the guard. Then there was the last guard, who froze and stood before them, knowing the odds weren't in his favor anymore. The coward turned and ran, but both Brock and Peter were on his tail.

Suddenly, the guard's foot snagged on one of the pieces of machinery, and he was sent sprawled on the ground. Brock and Peter stood over the struggling figure for a moment, but then reached over and grabbed a length of rope, tying the man's ankles and wrists together. Finally, to make sure he didn't attract anyone else, Peter grabbed a fake potato from one of the harvesting machine displays, stuffing it in the guy's mouth.

Little did the Legendary Locomotives know, none of their efforts really mattered at the moment, because Danny was already two floors below them.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Danny entered floor B3 just seconds later. Now he was in the room that held many wax figures of famous people who were key contributors to the history of the potato. Yawn...

Surprisingly, there were no guards on this floor despite Chris's warning. Danny scanned the room for any traps, but even with his sharp eye he could not see anything suspicious. On the other side of the room was another flight of stairs that went down; beside it stood a sign that said, "B4, La Bonnotte on display," which made Danny grin with satisfaction. He had this challenge in the bag.

Although, when he took a step forward, there came a sudden sound from behind, and he whirled around to see a wax figure of an elderly farmer launching itself at him. Danny used his thick clumps of arrows to block hits from the farmer's hoe, and then kicked the farming tool from out of its hand. He dropped down, avoiding a swipe of the hand, and whacked the leg with his foot, snapping it clean in half. The elderly-looking wax figure fell to the ground with a thump, its hardened leg nearby.

Suddenly, two more waxed figures came from behind, and when Danny turned around he was just barely able to dodge another old man's pitch fork along with a young man figure and its farming sickle. Danny held out both clumps of arrows, and while one deflected a hit from the old man's weapon, the sickle came in from below and knocked his hand, scattering the arrows into the air. While the young man was pulling back to swing again, Danny came forward and nailed its waxy face with his heel, making it cave in and sending the figure to the ground.

The old man advanced, stabbing with his pitchfork, and Danny's other clump of arrows was knocked away. In response, Danny flipped backwards, narrowly avoiding the sweeping tool, and picked up the broken leg from his previous foe. Before the figure could bring the pitchfork down, Danny lifted the wax leg and swung, knocking the figure's head clean off, and it collapsed to the ground. Danny set down the disfigured wax leg and picked up the sickle. It fit perfectly in his hand and was pretty light; this was even better than the arrows, and so he smiled at himself in the shiny reflection of its blade.

He continued on and started making his way down the stairs. He could already smell the La Bonnotte as he went, and imagined the look on Hannah's face when he came out untouched while holding that potato.

He walked down the flight of stairs and stepped foot on the landing, facing B4. The room was vast, at least fifty by fifty meters. The ceiling was lower, and only ten meters above his head. What made him grin even wider was the fact that the entire room was covered in lines of weaving lasers. On the other side of the laser maze was a glass stand that held the La Bonnotte inside. Still, there was nothing remarkable about the appearance of the Lab Bonnotte, but that didn't matter now. Danny was about to start a careful path through the intertwined lasers when he noticed somebody up ahead, and the smile was wiped completely off his face.

There, moving slowly over, under, and around the lasers, was Jonah, and he was already at the halfway point.

"No!" he shouted, making Jonah turn around to see him.

Jonah gave a little yelp and hurried up, moving past the lasers as quickly as he dared. At the moment, he wasn't sure which was worse: getting caught by Danny or being fried by lasers. Danny ran forward, jumping over lasers, sliding underneath, and sidling as fast as he could possibly go.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

By the time they had finished beating up the guards on B1, the Classic Cabooses had a ton of people who were injured. Beatrice had a black eye, Adrian's arms and legs were bruised up, Dylan had taken a nasty thump to the head, Clarence, Kelsey, and Megan had gotten knocked out completely, and then there was Sammy, who was nowhere to be seen. Only Greg, Grace, and Janice remained unharmed.

They couldn't keep going any longer, not with three people completely out cold, one missing, and one with possible brain damage. Instead, even though none of them wanted to abandon their hunter, those who weren't too badly damaged came together and helped lift their hurt teammates up; step by step, they made their way back up the stairs. They were done.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Beatrice

She caressed her black eye and whimpered a little.

"I now regret entering this competition. I would much rather be at home with a mug of hot tea and a blanket to lie underneath."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Jonah raced up to the stand, lifted the glass case, and picked up the potato. He had to get back out of the museum before Danny could reach him, but how?! Danny was almost through the lasers, and he was steaming, an evil glint in his eye. Jonah looked up and saw an air vent; it was just above a pile of a large, empty wooden crate. This was his only hope, so he ran up to the box, and with all his might, jumped up, grasping the edge of the box. It was splintery and covered in cobwebs, but it was he didn't care at the moment.

Just as he was hoisting himself up onto the crate, a hand grabbed his foot and he was wrenched backwards, making him fall onto the ground below. He was lucky that he didn't hit his head, and when he looked up he could see only Danny. He grasped the La Bonnotte, and a struggle occurred. Danny grabbed the potato and pulled back on it, trying to take it from Jonah, who was barely able to keep hold of it.

Jonah was panicked and confused, and the first thing that came to his mind happened moments later. He lifted his foot and kicked Danny hard in the crotch. While Danny clutched his groin and groaned for that one second, Jonah tossed the La Bonnotte to the side; it landed right on a laser, and was scorched, becoming bitter ash.

Danny recovered surprisingly quickly, and shouted in anger when his eyes fell on the soot that was once his rightful belonging. In frustration, he lifted his foot and kicked Jonah in the side over and over, totally relentless. He would've kept going if not for the frozen potato that fell from above and smacked him on the head without warning. He swayed for a moment, but then fell forward, landing on his stomach next to Jonah.

Generally, Jonah was tolerant to pain, but now his ribcage felt excruciated. He took a minute to get his breath back, but when he did, he lifted himself up, rubbing his side, and got back on top of the crate. When he looked up, he saw Sammy grinning gleefully back down at him.

"Hey," Jonah said hazily.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

The rest of the Legendary Locomotives came into the room with the lasers and gasped when they saw Danny lying unconscious at the other side. Also, it appeared that the La Bonnotte was gone. To them, it looked like Jonah had beaten up Danny and grabbed the potato, but that was just ridiculous! How could that little shrimp beat up a guy who knows martial arts?

Peter found another employee access card in the pocket of his stolen uniform, which he used to slide in the slot next to the door, making the lasers retreat from the room. Now that it was safe, the entire team ran across the room and examined Danny. Just as they were bending over him, he started to wake up, and they took a step back.

"That idiot... Puny... Ugh, my crotch... And my head..." was all he could say, as he was pretty dazed; that's when they noticed the purple lump on the back of his head and the frozen potato that lay nearby.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

The Classic Cabooses made it out of the Idaho Potato Museum first, some of them carrying unconscious team members, others just toughing it out. Shortly after, Sammy came out as well with Jonah leaning on his shoulders, clutching his side with a pained expression. Sammy lifted a long and skinny potato in his free hand, showing it to them all. At first, they thought that they actually had the La Bonnotte, but then Sammy shook his head and said,

"No, I don't know what happened to it. Jonah's just too confused and beat up to talk much right now, but he can tell us later, I guess. This is just an Austrian Crescent, or something."

Crestfallen expressions came upon their faces, but they didn't last long, because a few seconds later, the Legendary Locomotives came outside as well. None of them looked like they had trouble. In fact, the only person who looked hurt was Danny; it was actually kind of funny, because he was holding his groin and his head at the same time. The Classic Cabooses took a look at Jonah's small person and wondered what he could've possibly done to the taekwondo expert. The frozen potato that had knocked Danny out could be seen poking out of the pockets of his black hoodie.

Chris came out of the Pain Train and grinned when he saw all those distressed faces.

"So, I take it you had a good time?" he asked amusedly.

He didn't get to say more, because a flying frozen potato came in a moment later and knocked him in the forehead.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Danny

He glared at the camera with pure malice and said,

"I am never eating potatoes ever again."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

They had to wait for another ten minutes before the three knocked out Classic Cabooses were awake, but then the two teams were moved into the kitchen for the second part of their challenge. Now Chris was in a bad mood because of the headache that potato had given him, so he rubbed his temples as he stood before the twenty-three teenagers.

"Alright, now for the second part of your challenge! You may be able to guess what it is based on the name of the challenge itself. What purpose would I have for you bringing up potatoes? Well, that's where part two comes in; your task is to slice up the potatoes that you brought and make fries out of them!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Fred

"Oh yes! This is definitely a challenge I know! Food is my life, people! I can whip up a batch of fries that'll knock Chris's socks off, you can count on it!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Chris raised his hands and said,

"I want to taste some fries that'll knock my socks off! You will get twenty minutes to create your deep-fried masterpiece, so use creativity. Aaaaaand, go!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Fred gathered his teammates around and said,

"Okay, I am a great cook! Trust me and I assure you that we'll give him the best fries he's ever eaten."

No one had any objections, so that's the way it was. Immediately, Fred sent everybody to grab ingredients, of which included peppers, alfredo sauce, and several zesty spices.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Sammy and Grace volunteered to fry their potato while the others prepared fresh cheeses and vegetables. Adrian carefully cut up the Austrian Crescent potato into thin wedges and handed them to Grace, who lowered them into the fry grease.

"Sammy, you watch the fries, I'm gonna go cut up some veggies!" said Grace, skipping over to help the others.

"Gotcha!" replied Sammy, leaning on the counter and staring down at the wedges.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

In ten minutes, the spicy alfredo-pepper sauce for their steak fries was finished. Joe was about to take the potato slices and put them into the fryer when Fred put out a hand to stop him.

"Wait! Don't put them in the fryer until there are only two and a half minutes left to our time. We want them to be nice and hot for Chris." he explained.

Fred turned around to check on the spices and noticed that Blake was just sitting there, eating a stick of deep-fried butter.

"What are you doing?!" he said, waving his hands. "You could help, you know."

She burped, sending a spray of noxious fumes into Fred's face, and he coughed.

"Fine," he said, frowning at her, "be useless, but if we somehow manage to lose this challenge, then I will personally make sure your sorry butt gets kicked off the Pain Train."

"I can live with that." she grumbled, rubbing her large stomach.

Fred grumbled and walked away, utterly confused on how she stayed so muscular while eating deep-fried everything. Well, there's always a mystery somewhere.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Beatrice hummed quietly to herself as she crossed the kitchen, carrying the wonderful cheese and vegetable sauce in its bowl. Suddenly, the smell of smoke reached her nose, and her eyes widened when she saw their fryer smoking terribly.

"SMOKE!" she cried, setting down the bowl quickly and looked for water.

Adrian took action and ran over to the other end of the room, grabbed the fire extinguisher, and ran back, spraying the greasy fry trap with foam. The smoke stopped billowing up into the room and eventually cleared. They all looked over at Sammy, who was walking along the floor, bent over a cockroach that was scuttling along; at the moment, it had his total attention.

"Sammy!" they shouted, making him turn around.

When Sammy saw the foam-covered fryers his face fell.

"Oh... I'm really sorry! I just saw this cool bug and I got all distracted! I totally forgot to take my... Er, I mean—"

But he was interrupted by Chris, who stepped in and raised his hands, declaring,

"Time's up, people! Bring forth your creations!"

The Legendary Locomotives went up first and presented Chris with a platter. Fred stepped up to the plate and gestured at the elegantly displayed fries, saying,

"We used a golden Russet potato to make steak fries, adding a spicy alfredo-jalapeño sauce and several exotic spices on top."

Chris picked up one of the golden-brown fries and dipped it in the sauce. He tasted it, smiled, and swallowed.

"That may be the best French fry I have ever tasted!"

Chris enjoyed them so much that he finished the whole batch, sauce and all. He licked his fingers and then turned to the Classic Cabooses and their distraught faces.

"So, do you think you have the fries to beat the Legendary Locomotives' _legendary _creation?"

They all exchanged nervous glances. Then Sammy came forth, his head low, holding a plate holding a pile of blackened potato wedges covered in cheese and vegetable sauce. Chris stared at the food, looked up at them, and said,

"This challenge really wasn't that hard, you know."

After receiving glares from them, he looked back down at the plate and picked up a fry. It collapsed into ash in his hand, and he shook his head.

"It looks like we have our winner! Once again, the Legendary Locomotives have taken the win!"

They cheered loud and clear, raising their hands into the air. Chris turned back to the Classic Cabooses and muttered,

"Classic Cabooses, you guys will be staying in the second class rooms for another three days. Also, meet me tonight at nine for another Burning Ceremony."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Sammy

"I feel so ashamed. I should've just taken my... Never mind!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Danny

"I don't care if we won the challenge. I don't care that we get to have first class lodging. All I care about is the fact that that little geek Jonah managed to keep that potato from me! I don't like being one-upped," he said, pointing at the screen, "so Jonah, if you're watching this, make sure you don't do anything stupid again, or I'll be all over you like mold on a shower curtain!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Jonah

He gave a little shiver and muttered,

"I don't know why, but I suddenly feel really dirty."

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Chris stood before the team of eleven with a smile on his face.

"Once again, I find myself speaking in front of you, the Classic Cabooses, for another Burning Ceremony. This is two in a row, guys; you're gonna want to step it up if you want to stay."

He glanced up at the coal heads on the rack above the furnace and said,

"You have all casted your votes, and I'm now going to reveal the loser. If you do not receive your own coal head, you must take the Hop of Shame, leaving the Pain Train for good. And you can't come back. EVER."

Chris reached up and took Adrian's head in his hand, tossing it to its owner a moment later.

"Adrian."

Next, he picked up Jonah's head, then Megan's, and then Beatrice's.

"Jonah, Megan, Beatrice."

He looked back up at the rack, studying the remainder of the coal heads. A few seconds later, he reached up and grabbed Dylan's, throwing it at the hillbilly.

"Dylan."

"Kelsey." he added, moments afterwards, throwing the next head.

He picked up three more heads and threw them.

"Clarence, Janice, Greg."

Now only Sammy and Grace's heads were left. Chris put on in each hand and looked at them both, then to their waiting owners.

"The person who WILL receive their coal head tonight is..."

Another dramatic pause came about, and as the intense music played, both Sammy and Grace looked up at Chris with worried expressions. Finally, roughly ten seconds later, Chris lifted Sammy's head and lobbed it at the boy.

"Sammy."

Grace lowered her head and sniffled, unable to watch as her coal head was thrown into the furnace.

"Grace, your time has come." said Chris. "It's your turn to take the Hop of Shame, so let's go!"

Chris led Grace and the rest of the Classic Cabooses into the main hallway. He slid open the steel door, letting the wind blow in. Grace looked outside, turned to look back at them, smiled a bit, and said,

"Well, guys, it was still pretty fun! Maybe I'll see you later! Bye!"

With that, she took the jump off of the Pain Train and entered the passing hills and grasslands. Grace was a member of the Classic Cabooses no longer. Chris faced the team of ten and said,

"I know you're all very tired from the early wakeup call, so I suggest you go off to bed."

He left them in the hallway, ready to get to bed himself; he needed some beauty sleep. The Classic Cabooses went down the left hallway once more, entering their own rooms. For another three days, they'd have to put up with musty beds, crappy food, and the judgment of their fellow team members. First class sounded better than it had ever before. Their losing streak had to end, otherwise they'd go one by one; still, even like last time, there was still a sliver of hope among them.

* * *

**Another contestant has left the competition. I bet they're all getting serious about winning now, huh? I wouldn't want to be part of a losing streak, either.**

**Well, it's been great, but I've gotta go again! See you later, everyone!**

**~Pastrinator64**


	5. Twenty-Two Blind Mice

**Hello, this is Pastrinator64 with another chapter from Total Drama National Tour.**

**Okay, now before we get on with anything, I need to say something VERY important.**

**Disclaimer: I did NOT, repeat, NOT, know that a dimebag was a bag that held marijuana when I was referring to Chris's appearance in the first chapter. I'm a rather gullible person, and so when I saw on Facebook that somebody was talking about dimebags that carry dimes, I actually believed them. So, just to clarify, I am not making Chris a secret drug addict.**

**Anyway, now that I've finally got that off my chest, how about we get on with chapter 5?**

* * *

_Chapter 5: Twenty-Two Blind Mice_

Chris stood before the train and faced the camera.

"Last time on Total Drama National Tour," he began, "you watched as I put both teams through tests of ultimate stealthiness. They were required to send a hunter into the Idaho Potato Museum that would sneak down to the bottom level and steal a La Bonnotte, which is a VERY, VERY expensive French potato. There were fights, bruises, and a couple of people who even got knocked out thanks to Grace. In the end, the La Bonnotte was burnt to a crisp by Jonah, who threw it desperately into the security lasers to keep it from Danny. Later on, once the teams had brought up their alternate potatoes, they put their cooking skills to the test, creating some good-looking deep-fried treats for me to taste. Sammy accidently let the Classic Cabooses down when he forgot about their fries, letting them be set aflame. Fred took the Legendary Locomotives to yet another victory when he showed off his impressive skills in the kitchen. After the Burning Ceremony, it was Grace who took the Hop of Shame; it was a close second between her and Sammy, but she just couldn't keep her excitement down, and they realized that it might be the safer decision. Now we put the teams through the third challenge, and I guarantee, you do NOT want to miss it! Find out what happens when our contestants go under the Earth's surface on TOTAL... DRAMA... NATIONAL TOUR!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

It was bliss to be in first class again. Now the winning team could head back to their comfy recliners and do whatever they wanted, eat whatever they wanted, and have NO responsibilities whatsoever.

Jenny, Fred, Greta, and Meredith were sleeping in their recliners, peaceful as could be. Hannah was awake, silently cleaning her rifle. Peter was awake as well, and was doing a hundred push-ups in the corner of the room. Brock and Joey were talking and drinking soda at the nearby bar. Danny was sitting quietly in the corner, writing down something on a notepad, constantly looking up at each of his teammates. Lizzy was relaxing in the hot tub that Chris had installed the previous night, Joe across from her, both of them calm and relaxed. Lastly, there was Blake, who sat next to a table loaded with junk food that she continued to chow down at an unending pace.

In other words, all of them were extremely thankful for a chance to rest after the challenge from the previous night.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Unlike the Legendary Locomotives, the Classic Cabooses were far from rested.

Janice sat at her table, her eyes drooping, and was suddenly startled when a plate smacked down on the wooden surface.

"Breakfast is served!" declared Chef Hatchet, who walked away a moment later to deliver more food.

Janice looked down at the crumbly eggs, soppy bacon, and plague drink on her platter, making her nose curl.

"You and I have a different idea of what breakfast is, Cheffy."

Thankfully, Chef didn't hear her, because he didn't turn around to yell. Greg received his food and looked at it in disgust. He picked up one of the forks, his nose curled in a similar fashion at the stench, and stabbed a slice of egg, putting it in his mouth and chewing with a grossed-out expression. When he swallowed he murmured,

"Oooohhhh... That was so bad I think it gave me cancer."

Chef paused for a moment, lowered his eyes to stare angrily at him, and then replied,

"Just eat it, you whiny little kid."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Three bittersweet days later, the two teams found themselves standing in front of Chris once more, grouped together in the small dining car.

"Good morning, everyone! The third day has come yet again, so that means your third challenge will be very soon. In roughly a half hour, we will be approaching the heart of Kentucky, so prepare yourself!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Fred

"Man, I sure hope that the challenge has something to do with eating fried chicken. That'd be awesome!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Blake

"This challenge had better be a contest to see who can eat the most fried chicken, 'cuz I'd like some of that right about now."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Dylan

"Yahoo! A challenge in ma home state! Dis'll be great!"

That's when he pulled out a chicken leg and bit into it.

"Why, we even invented Kentucky fried chicken, now didn't?" he said, a chunk of poultry in his cheek.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

One half hour later, both teams had grouped together inside the dining hall.

Fred looked slightly dreary and began to rub his eyes.

"Geez, this lack of sleep thing is really getting on my nerves. I hope the challenge isn't super physically-demanding or anything, because I'm pooped!"

"What are you talking about?" replied Jenny, staring at him with one eyebrow raised. "We've been in the first class car for the past six days!"

"Yeah," said Fred, stifling a yawn, "but back home I sleep sixteen hours a day. I'm just always tired, okay?"

"Or hibernating..." she muttered, her mouth shaped into a grin.

The Classic Cabooses were much worse off than the other team; hardly any of them had gotten a sufficient amount of sleep. All of them had glazed eyes and stiff backs. Ever since the first day, Chris woke them up insanely early for a crummy breakfast, and they were seriously sick of it. The first class room never sounded so good.

"Ugh!" whined Greg, walking up to the approaching Chris and grabbing his attention; he pointed to his shadowy eyes and said, "Look at these bags under my eyes! Even my bags have bags!"

Chris pushed him off and said,

"You can catch up on your sleep in your free time, but we've got a challenge to get on with!"

Once Greg had gone back to his team, Chris raised his hands and began yet another one of his little speeches.

"Today's challenge is a little something I like to call Twenty-Two Blind Mice! The challenge will be taking place inside Mammoth Cave, the largest cave system in all of the United States."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Dylan

He pumped a fist and declared,

"Yes! I've bin ter Mammoth Cave billions o' times! This'll be a cinch, I'm goldang sure!"

With a broad, almost-toothless grin, he looked straight at the camera and added,

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

The Pain Train came to a halt just seconds later. The teams followed Chris outside and all the way until they came across a small nearby sign that read: MAMMOTH CAVE NATIONAL PARK. They walked down the stone path that was nearby for only a minute, because they soon found themselves approaching a large cave entrance. The path steepened as they walked it; after a minute, they were moving along slowly in a dim cave tunnel, illuminated only by the flickering yellow lights above.

All Adrian could do was gulp.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Adrian

With a worried look on his face, he looked straight into the camera and started talking.

"Okay, so when I was just a kid, me and my brothers went to the Caverns of Sonora back home in Texas. While we were walking, it got really dark in this one tunnel, and my ma and pa got separated from us. My brothers weren't worried, but I sure was. We were going to turn around, but all of a sudden there was a drop-off that I couldn't see in the dark, and I fell fifty feet down into a hole; I used to be a small kid, so I fell underneath the rails. It took my family an hour to realize I was missing, and it took another hour just for them to get a search team down there and grab me. I even have the scar to prove it all."

He rolled up the left leg of his jeans, showing a curled mark around his kneecap.

"I've been afraid of caves since then, and even though it's been eleven years, I can't shake the memory when I see one..."

He made himself shudder just by thinking about it.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Beatrice was also quite nervous—not because she had the same fear of caves, but because she was generally a hesitant person. Meanwhile, there was Sammy, who was running all over the place, looking at everything in sight despite that fact that there wasn't really much to look at to begin with.

Brock was rather excited, and so he started talking about more of his past accomplishments.

"This reminds me of the time I went to Shenandoah Caverns. It was super huge and freaky because of these weird minerals that made it all different colors. I went all the way down, explored for a while, and came back up without a scratch! There was a whole cloud of bats down there that attacked me, but I beat them up."

Jenny smirked and rolled her eyes at the same time.

"Sure," she murmured under her breath, "right after screaming like a girl scout."

Brock frowned at her for a moment, but then decided it was best to ignore her instead.

A few minutes of walking later, they took a turn and instantly found themselves standing on a ledge that overlooked an insanely massive cave, which was illuminated only by the heavy-duty flashlight that Chris held in his hands. The cave itself was at least a couple hundred meters across, plus a hundred more in depth. Gigantic stalactites hung from the rocky ceiling, and dotting the ground below were even more stalagmites, their size just as impressive.

"This is only the first cave!" said Chris, smiling back at the mixed group of nervous, excited, and skeptical looks on their faces. "The entirety of Mammoth Cave is about 214 kilometers squared, so it's PRETTY big!"

He turned around to face them and continued.

"Now I will explain Twenty-Two Blind Mice. In this challenge, you will have to navigate your way through the caves all the way to the other end." he said gleefully.

He took out two more heavy-duty flashlights from his backpack and tossed one to Danny, and the other to Janice.

"You're gonna need these if you want to see, so I suggest you hold onto them. Also, since you'll probably have to spend more than one night in here considering the distance you'll be traveling, I'll give you exactly ten minutes to run back to the Pain Train and grab whatever you think you need for the trip. Go, go!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Adrian

With eyes full of fear, he stared directly at the camera and held out his hands limply.

"Gosh dang it! I don't think I can last more than a few hours in there!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Back on the train, Joe slipped quietly into room 02 and closed the door behind him. He knelt down by the cupboard that was secured by his new padlock. After unlocking it again, he reached inside and pulled out a red canister, which he stowed inside the pocket of his orange hoodie, safe and sound.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

In room 05, Sammy was digging through his bags, picking out every single packet of junk food he could find. Then he quickly located his cool glow-in-the-dark yo-yo, his stress ball, and his mystery novels. He crammed all of this inside a small backpack, which he strapped on his back in a matter of seconds; he was all ready for the journey.

With a satisfied look on his face, he took a deep intake of breath and let it out in a happy sigh. As he walked out the door, his roommates entered to grab their things. Clarence was able to fill an entire backpack with supplies, so he was prepared for anything, pretty much. Greg didn't bother grabbing anything because he didn't think they'd be down there for very long.

And then there was Adrian, who was nervously searching for things to protect himself with. Finally, he found his multi-purpose pocketknife, and he felt safer taking it with him, so he put it in his jeans pocket. Even so, the following experience was going to be absolutely nerve-racking.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Fred

"Going back to the cave, I noticed that no one else on my team was bringing food with them. Well, they're gonna be pretty thankful when I show up with my set; I can get myself on the team's good side, that's for sure."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

Ten minutes later, both teams were back where they had been, well, ten minutes ago. Overlooking the vast cave, Chris stopped for a moment and heard them coming, so he turned around to face them.

"Got everything you need?" after receiving nods from almost all of them, he continued speaking. "I hope you know what you're doing. Anyway, as I was saying before, you'll need to get your entire team to the other end of Mammoth Cave, and I mean EVERY member! You do not want to get lost in here." he said, giving Adrian the chills again. "Legendary Locomotives, you will take the right path, and Classic Cabooses will be going left." he added, gesturing at the two equally crooked, rocky trails on either side.

Looking at his watch, he tapped it and said,

"Your time starts now!"

The Legendary Locomotives and Classic Cabooses went their separate ways, the yellowish light from their flashlights guiding them.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Adrian quickly sought out Clarence, staying close by his side.

"I hate to admit it, partner, but I have a fear of caves."

Clarence smiled up at him and replied in a calm voice,

"Nothing to fear, my friend. All that we need is in this pack here."

He patted the side of his large backpack before turning towards the rocky road ahead. While he and many several others were able to navigate the rough terrain fairly quickly, others like Beatrice, Kelsey, and Greg were not so lucky.

"When are we going to be there, already?!" complained Greg, raising his hands hopelessly.

Megan looked back at him and said,

"But Greg, we've only been walking for ten minutes."

"I think it's actually been nine." corrected Jonah.

Greg grumbled and looked at them both with dislike.

"Well, my knees are still sore from the first challenge and my head hurts from the second one, so I can barely move! I could use a little help."

Jonah looked back at him again and asked,

"How much do you weigh?"

Greg stared at him unsurely and replied,

"I weigh 129 pounds, like the average male of my size. Why?"

Jonah stopped walking, and scooted next to him, crouching down slightly.

"Get on my back and I'll carry you."

Greg lifted his head and sneered, then shook his head as he observed his teammate.

"You're skin and bones! I'll crush you if I get on, you know." he said incredulously.

"Just do it, okay?"

With a sigh, Greg agreed reluctantly, and he hopped onto Jonah's back. Surprisingly enough, Jonah supported him fairly easily, and was able to carry him over the difficult terrain. It wasn't much fun, what with his everlasting complaints, but Jonah was willing to do it if it helped them win. They seriously needed that first class train car.

"Oh yeah, I want a piece of that action!"

From out of nowhere, Sammy came running up and launched himself onto Greg's back, making Jonah's knees buckle, sending all three of them face-first into the ground.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

The Legendary Locomotives had learned their lesson already about the sticking together, so they made sure that nobody got left behind.

"As long as we stick together, we shouldn't make the same mistake as last time. We don't want to lose to THEM..." said Greta in a singsong voice that ended up sounding nasty.

"Why," grumbled Blake, her mouth full of chips, "what's so interesting about those classic train butts?"

Greta looked at her seriously, squinting slightly, and then turned her head left and right as if checking to make sure they weren't being eavesdropped on.

"They may seem like a bunch of losers, but—"

"Noobs, more like." cut in Blake, chuckling to herself and shoving another handful of chips in her huge mouth.

"Yes, noobs; anyway, I don't think we should underestimate them. We should make sure that none of them make it to the finals."

This sounded like a good idea to Blake, so she said,

"Yeah, and it's not like they're the sharpest knives in the, uh...the place where you keep the knives."

Greta smiled to herself, knowing what a piece of cake her plan would be, and she added,

"Just think about it; who knows what kind of sneaky plotting their doing against us?"

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Really, they were doing the opposite, because they were merely talking amongst each other—Greg and his "sore" legs as an exception, for he barely said a word, and when he did say something, it was negative.

"Last winter me and my friends Jack, Max, John, Corby, Anthony, and my girlfriend Vanessa went group tubing in the freezing cold water wearing nothing but our swimsuits, and it was, like, even worse than the time we took the Polar Plunge, but it was EPIC!" declared Sammy, raising a fist into the air.

"You have a girlfriend?" said Greg, looking skeptical.

Sammy lowered his head a bit and said,

"I had a girlfriend, but then she dumped me when she found out about... Never mind."

Jonah, despite his shrimpiness, still looked down at Sammy and commented,

"At least you had a girlfriend. I'm forever alone, always have been, always will be."

Megan punched his shoulder lightly and said,

"C'mon, you're not forever alone! You must have lots of friends."

"Yeah, but that's about as far as it goes—best friends, nothing more."

"Well, maybe it's just because you're ugly."

Jonah turned to stare with an annoyed expression at Megan, but then when he saw that she was grinning he stopped for a moment and laughed.

"I see what you did there!" he said, pointing a finger at her.

"I still haven't stopped watching that show even though I'm seventeen" said Megan.

"When I was in grade school, we cracked so many SpongeBob jokes it was almost not funny! ...Almost..." said Jonah, remembering the good days.

Even while everyone around him talked, and even though he tried to ignore his surroundings and join in, Adrian still couldn't shake that horrible feeling he was getting just being there. Beatrice was suffering from the same problem, and she shivered as they walked along through the dark tunnel. Then there was Clarence, who was so solemn while he walked up ahead with the flashlight that he seemed like he had just attended a funeral.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Greta smiled and leaned in, whispering to Blake,

"I've been thinking. When it comes to making plans, I've got it covered, but when I need to get physical, I'm in a tough spot. So, I was thinking about creating an alliance with you so that we can work together. I could really use your strength."

Blake looked down at her, stopped chewing for a moment, and then said,

"What's in it for me?"

"If you stick with me, I'll take you to the final two." she whispered, making sure no one else could hear her.

Blake grinned a mouthful of yellow teeth and then lifted her beefy arms, flexing them to show the muscle bulge.

"I'm in." she confirmed, nodding at her.

Greta looked around for a moment and said,

"We need one other person to make this alliance perfect, so who can we threaten into joining?"

The grossly overstuffed female barely had to search before her eyes fell on Fred, who was dragging himself along sluggishly. She walked forward suddenly, grabbed him, and pulled him backwards.

"Hey! What's the big idea?!" he cried, struggling against her.

Once they were side by side, Greta glowered down at him and said,

"Hello, Fred. Blake and I are forming an alliance, but we need one more person."

Fred tried to escape, but Blake put him in a crushing headlock and added,

"In other words, Fatty, join us or you'll regret being born."

There was no way that Fred could do anything to save himself, so he just gave a whiny groan.

"Fine, I'll join you."

She let go of him, and he quickly ran off towards the front of his team's traveling numbers to avoid any further abuse. A few minutes of walking later, they came across the edge of the singular cave they were in and found a dark tunnel that led onward. It was pitch black inside, and their only light was the flashlight. Immediately, Fred moved backwards and away from the tunnel, shaking his hands and saying,

"Nuh uh! Noooooo way!"

He felt a tap on his shoulder, and when he turned around, he saw Blake's towering figure. With an angry grunt, he goose-stomped back up the path in reluctance. They entered the dark tunnel together, and it was almost black except for up front where the yellow flashlight illuminated the upcoming part of the passageway.

"Hey... This isn't so bad, is it?" commented Joey, giving a little shrug.

As if he had brought upon them a curse, there came a sudden thundering sound, and when they turned around, they saw the entrance to the tunnel cave in behind them, encasing them in an even darker lighting. All the girls screamed and the boys yelled—not Fred, though; he was with the girls—making their ears vibrate, and there was a confusing commotion as everyone moved about, trying to communicate at once.

It was then that their flashlight burnt out, casting them all into pitch-blackness.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Luckily for the Classic Cabooses, their tunnel never caved in and their flashlight remained on. Although Adrian and Beatrice were still quite scared, they were all able to stick with each other in minimal confusion.

"Psst," whispered Sammy after a long time of walking, "it's 12:03!"

"Really? That late?"

"No, in the afternoon, I mean."

"Nice glow in the dark watch, by the way."

"Thanks. Anyway, shouldn't we stop for lunch?"

They all whispered in agreement. Clarence, evidently, brought a whole survival kit in his backpack. He pulled out matches, logs of firewood, and stones for the pit. Once he set up the fire pit in the dark, he found his matches and lit one, then set the logs aflame. The flames went up in a warm burst and then died down. They were now in another cave, only this one was a lot smaller than the first humongous structure they had visited earlier. They sat around the fire and ate the food they brought; the only problem was, Greg hadn't thought to bring food. He felt his stomach growl, and he looked around quickly at his teammates.

"Hey, can I have a bite to eat, anyone?" he said in a rather demanding voice.

Sammy looked up from his Mallomar and stared at Greg, his eyes squinting. Greg raised an eyebrow and muttered,

"What?"

Sammy scooted himself around the fire towards Greg, still staring, and reached towards his face. Greg pulled back and said,

"What's wrong with you?"

Sammy put a finger to his cheek and stroked it awkwardly for a moment.

"You've got an eyelash on your cheek. Can I just..." he murmured, reaching out to brush it away.

His hand was slapped away by Greg, who replied with,

"Why do you care?"

"I just do, so brush it off, please." he repeated, trying to take care of the minor matter.

Everyone watched them curiously as they went back and forth, Greg bickering and Sammy looking oddly determined. Finally, he was able to get it, and he smiled with satisfaction.

"There!" he said, moving back to his spot.

Greg leaned over to Adrian and jerked a thumb at Sammy once he had returned to his delicious Mallomar.

"That kid's got problems." he murmured.

After eating lunch, they packed up their items again and starting moving through the cave, set on just moving forward. That's when Dylan ran in front and turned around to face them all.

"Hold on, everyone!" he said, holding out his hairy arms. "Ah've bin through dis here cave many, many times, an' I know da paths inside an' out! Follow me and I guarantee we'll find ar way through faster than a jackrabbit hopping across a hot griddle in the middle of July!"

He started speed-walking away from them, and they quickly followed behind.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Greg

He raised an eyebrow as he looked at the camera.

"Okay, I correct myself; Dylan's got way more problems."

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Meanwhile, somewhere far from the Classic Cabooses's position, the Legendary Locomotives were struggling to even get moving in the pitch-blackness. Finally, after Hannah had gotten them all to be quiet, she said,

"Alright, everyone! My eyes have already adjusted to the light, so I can—"

"What the...?!" declared Greta, getting an eyeful of Hannah's eyes, which appeared to be glowing in the dark. "What are your eyes doing?"

Hannah laughed and then said,

"Oh yeah, I swallowed a neon flashlight when I was twelve, so it's still there. It's, like, embedded in my brain, so it makes me have night vision!"

"And apparently mental defects, too..." grumbled Jenny.

"I heard that!" she replied angrily. "I've got a deer's hearing! I've got its smell, too!"

Hannah sniffed the air, and then people watched as her eyes turned towards another corridor, which lit up with the eerie green light coming from her eyes.

"That way! I smell meat!"

She took off running immediately, and her teammates followed behind as fast as they could; she was pretty quick on her feet, so it was near impossible to do so. They ran for a good minute before Hannah came to a sudden stop, and everyone rammed into each other.

"Ow! Get off!"

"Stop standing on my foot!"

"Dang, I dropped a contact."

"Has anyone seen a small pebble about the size of a... Hold on..."

"Pebble?"

"Yeah, it's my lucky pebble."

"Fred, you are such a dweeb."

"SHH! Everyone be quiet again!"

They all shut their mouths and followed Hannah's eyes as they jerked around, this way and that.

"Do you hear that? It sounds really high-pitched."

Everyone strained to listen in the dark for a moment.

"I don't hear anything." said Brock.

"Nope, me neither." commented Joey.

Hannah paused for a moment, but then looked straight up and her eyes widened. Up above, just a few feet from them, was a cluster of giant bats, all of them staring hungrily down at them.

"Oh..." was all that Hannah could say.

The ten gigantic bats flew down from the ceiling, hurtling towards them and screeching wildly. They fled, all of them screaming and flailing their arms to protect from the painful bites.

* * *

_Confessional_

Chris

"Ohoho, man! That was CLASSIC! Those leftover props from the dinosaur movie come in handy! Heheheh!" he chuckled, holding his head with both hands.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Many hours of walking later, and people were starting to get tired—mostly Greg's lame endurance was the cause of his complaints, which didn't make the trip any more fun for the others.

"Can we stop now? Now the bags under my eyes have bags AND the cramps in my legs have cramps! That's four times the pain!"

"Hold on, let me check my watch again." said Sammy, taking a glance down at his glow-in-the-dark watch. "It's 8:09 at night, so we've been walking for, um, I think about eight hours. Greg's right, we should camp out together and make a fire and roast marshmallows!"

"But Sammy," remarked Beatrice, clutching herself to stop her shivering, "you have eaten sixteen Mallomars in the past hour."

"So?" he said, as if consuming that much sugar was completely normal.

They set up camp there for the night. Clarence got out his survival kit and made another fire for them, plus took out a whole package of super-compressed sleeping bags that were unfolded to be big enough for each of them. They wouldn't freeze to death overnight this way. Everyone gathered around the fire and roasted the hot dogs that Clarence had brought with him and had themselves a nice supper. Once they were finished eating, Sammy laid back in his sleeping bag and said,

"So, what now?"

"Why don't we do some icebreakers?" suggested Kelsey in a happy, bubbly voice.

Not even a cricket was heard. She suddenly looked over at Jonah and Megan, who were duking it out against each other in Super Smash Bros. Universe for the 3DS and 2DS. It appeared that Jonah was losing, because he kept grimacing at random moments while Megan was staring down at her screen in concentration.

"Stop taking the smash ball, you cheater! Yoshi's final smash is so OP!"

"Ha ha!" she laughed, barreling over Jonah with insane power.

"Stop it already!" he protested, hopelessly trying to dodge the oncoming fireballs that flew from Dragon Yoshi's mouth.

At one point, when they didn't stop, Greg sat crouched over and started mimicking them, staring in a ridiculous trance at an invisible handheld.

"Ooh," he murmured with fake excitement, "new record! Now I only need to play twenty-four more hours before I can get all the achievements!"

The two gamers paused their match and looked up; noticing that everyone was watching them, their cheeks turned slightly red as they shoved their devices back in their pockets.

"Sorry," they both muttered.

"So, what are we really going to do?" repeated Sammy. "I'm BORED!"

"I'd just LOVE to have my nails done!" suggested Kelsey, holding out a hand.

"I'd love it if we could hold a reading session as a group." said Clarence, lifting up _Moby Dick _in his hands.

"And I don't love anything." added Greg, leaning back against a stalagmite with his arms crossed. "So it seems we have reached an impasse."

This comment got snickers from Jonah and Megan, who started remembering SpongeBob again.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

Somewhere else inside Mammoth Cave, the Legendary Locomotives were still screaming and running for their lives. At one point, Hannah hit a pothole up front, and she fell down onto the moist ground; everyone else tripped over her, and they fell into an enormous clump. Meredith quickly stopped herself before tumbling over and turned around to face the bats, who, upon seeing her, froze in midair. One came forward and sniffed her, and she held out a large hand, letting it set itself down.

"You are beautiful, aren't you?" she murmured as the bat in her palm curled itself into a snug ball, nuzzling her fingers.

Everyone watched in amazement as the cloud of the remaining nine bats settled down on Meredith's arms and shoulders comfortably and squeaked to her while she was rubbing the first bat's tummy.

* * *

Meanwhile, Chris was sitting back above-ground in his luxury car, watching the monitors to see how the contestants were getting along. When he saw Meredith start to interact with the bats, his eyes widened in disbelief.

"But those are props..."

* * *

A minute of watching the unbelievable turn of events later, Meredith looked to her left and made a high-pitched squeak to one of the bats. The bat squeaked back a couple of times, and then Meredith lowered her head to look at her teammates—at least, where she thought they had fallen based on the light from Hannah's eyes.

"They said that they can lead us to the back of Mammoth Cave, and all we have to do is follow them."

The rest of them stood up, untangling themselves from the pile of fallen people. Once they were all together again, Meredith and the bats took off past them, and they followed close behind. As Greta was running with Blake and Fred, she squinted at Meredith in the dark and murmured to herself,

"You know, maybe we should convince Nature Freak to join our alliance."

Immediately, she picked up her pace and ran up next to Meredith, maintaining a jog next to the surprisingly fit girl.

"Hello, Meredith!" she said in a cheery voice.

"Hello to you, Greta." replied Meredith.

"I just love the way you talk to those animals! It is so cool!"

"Well, thank you so very much. I do find the _Desmodontinae _to be quite a playful and curious species."

"Uh, what's a desmodonithingy?""

"Oh, it's the vampire bat's scientific name." she replied simply, gazing up at the flying mammals in awe.

Greta stopped for a moment, giving Meredith a funny look, but then wiped it away and put her smile back on.

"Anyway, I just wondering if you'd like to form an alliance with me! I have a plan to take me and three other people to the final four, but I need one more person. I recognize your skills very much, but when I see other people on the team, I notice that they're talking about how weird you are."

Meredith put on a disappointed frown and looked over at her, inclining her head slightly to make contact with those wicked greenish-gray eyes.

"They said that?" she murmured, looking hurt.

"But I don't think you're weird, I think your talent is amazing!" added Greta, giving her the shiniest, most cheerful smile she could manage.

This put the smile back on Meredith's face, and as she looked back up at the bats overhead she said,

"I want to win the million and start a nature preservation company so that we can keep our Earth healthy and alive with life, so this means a lot to me. You know, I'd love to be a part of your alliance, Greta, and thank you for asking me to join; I really do appreciate your help."

Greta gave her a thumbs-up.

"No, thank you! Now we're a true team!"

Leaving Meredith to imagine her blissful future in nature preservation, Greta fell back towards Blake and Fred. Fred huffed and gasped for breath, but he was still able to look up at her and ask,

"Why'd you go talking to Meredith?"

"What do you think? I was tricking her into joining the alliance. Now we've got the Nature Freak on our side. You've seen how she can use animals, haven't you? We're going to win the challenge because of her, and every challenge after that, too. How can you NOT use somebody like her?"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Legendary Locomotives)

Greta

"Wow. While everyone else is going around with no strategy whatsoever, here I am, making alliances like that!" she said, snapping her fingers. "Blake was easy considering she inherited her brainpower from the dinos; she'll be able to do all the dirty work for me. Fred has no skills at all, but I can still get his vote. Also, he won't go off and try and get help, because I can just have Blake "persuade" him again. Then there's Meredith. She is the crowned jewel of the alliance, I must say; her abilities to work so well with animals will help me in so many ways it's almost not fair—well, it isn't, actually. With all three of their votes, I can just keep picking off people one by one. The possibilities are endless!" she declared, raising her hands.

With one final look at the camera, she said,

"Now all I need to do is get Hannah or Danny on my side, though I haven't figured out how to yet."

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

The Classic Cabooses slept well that night; with the warmth of Clarence's many sleeping bags, they were able to keep the cold away while they dozed off. The only ones awake were Beatrice and Adrian. Neither of them could fall asleep because of their sudden spouts of insomnia. Their bodies were heavy and their eyes from sleepiness, but even so their minds were still alert. Even the slightest sound made them jump, such as the drip of water, a squeak from a distant bat, the groan of slow, cold winds blowing through—

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

—or the echo of Sammy's bloodcurdling scream. With a start, everyone awoke and scrambled out of their sleeping bags, suddenly wide awake and fearful.

"Sammy?!" shouted Jonah, a bit of anxiety in his voice. "If you're not really in trouble, then this isn't funny!"

Clarence stood erect and turned his head, looking off into the darker areas of their cave. He took a piece of wood, lit it aflame, and then went off into the dankest, deepest part. There was silence amongst the other team members as they waited in a tense atmosphere. Suddenly, Clarence came back into view and motioned for them to follow. They stumbled—they hadn't completely gotten rid of their sleepiness—forward and followed Clarence as he directed. He handed the torch to Adrian and turned on their heavy-duty flashlight, pointing it downward. There was a deep crevice there, and standing about twenty-one meters down was Sammy, waving his arms at them.

"Down here!" he shouted, jumping up and down and squinting into the light.

Clarence turned to them and said,

"We must form a rope so that Sammy can get out. The largest will be at the top, so Adrian, we need you to hang on tight to that stalagmite there."

He pointed at a tall and skinny stalagmite that was only two feet from the hole. Adrian, although very nervous, mustered up his courage and strength, and lay down on the wet ground, wrapping his strong arms around the rock.

"Okay, so the order is Adrian, then Janice, then I, then Dylan, Megan, Greg, Kelsey, Jonah, and Beatrice at the end. If we really stretch out to our maximum height, then we will be able to reach him. Everyone line up, please."

It took only a matter of seconds to get them all into a line. Person by person, they grabbed hold of each other's ankles and slowly lowered themselves down into the cave's crevice. Finally, ten minutes of sore muscles later, Beatrice had climbed down and was hanging tight onto Jonah; she reached out to Sammy as far as she could and he grabbed hold of her small hand. Thankfully, he didn't weigh very much, because as he was climbing up the human rope, it didn't strain them too hard. Only Adrian was allowed to complain, because he was holding up a LOT of weight by hanging onto that stalagmite.

Sammy lifted himself up past Beatrice and Jonah in a quick time frame, and then came to Kelsey. Unfortunately for her, his shoes were really muddy because of the puddle at the bottom of the ravine, and when he lifted up his foot he accidently stepped on her face. She squealed in disgust and shook.

"EEEEEWWWWW! DIRTY!"

She took one of her hands away from Greg's ankle to wipe off her face, but when she let go her entire body became unbalanced, and the entire tower swayed on the spot.

"Woooaaah!" she said, trying to get her grip back.

Her lightweight body wasn't enough to handle the rocky movements, and that's when her other hand came free, sending her, Jonah, Beatrice, and Sammy back down to the bottom of the pit. They landed with a loud splash in the massive mud puddle, and she screamed horribly.

"Noooooo! Ohhhh, this is SOOOOO GROSS!"

Clarence gave a little sigh of exasperation, but nevertheless he looked down at the remaining teammates of the rope and said,

"Alright, we're going to have to tie all the sleeping bags together and hope that they hold. Everyone back up, then!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

While the Classic Cabooses were figuring out how to keep moving forward, the Legendary Locomotives were still on the move. The bats continued to lead them through the caves. A few moments later, they came into a cave and found something interesting; it looked like somebody had already been there.

"The other team has been here." concluded Fred very obviously.

"Yeah, but why would they just leave all their stuff here?"

Just then, on the dark end of the cave, there was a yell.

"Grab hold of the sleeping bags and climb up!"

Danny smirked into the darkness and said,

"Oh, this is rich! This is SO rich!"

Quickly, he turned around to face his teammates.

"Let's gather up all their stuff and get the heck out of here!"

Joey and Joe exchanged looks of apprehension at the thought.

"Hey, that's not cool, man." said Joe, looking down at Danny and shaking his head.

Danny grimaced up at him and replied with,

"If you don't, then I'm not afraid to personally make sure that you're the one getting booted off. Got that?"

This was enough motivation for them all to hurriedly grab the Classic Cabooses's supplies. Once they had taken the backpack, their food, and even the firewood, they took off into the dark, using their newfound torches to light the way. In a matter of seconds, they rushed right past the Classic Cabooses, who barely had time to react to the oncoming crowd of people and flying vampire bats. Adrian was so startled that he tripped backwards, and despite Clarence's efforts to catch him, he fell over into the hole; what was even worse was that the other fallen members of their team had almost made it up, only to be knocked back down into the chasm.

"Wait! They've got our stuff!" shouted Greg, waving a fist at them angrily.

The other team disappeared into the darkness beyond in a matter of seconds. Greg looked back down into the hole and called out to them with all his voice.

"HURRY UP, DOWN THERE! THE OTHERS ARE GETTING AWAY!"

Janice looked down at Greg in annoyance, and was finally fed up with him, so she put out her hand and shoved him into the crevice herself, then smiled with satisfaction when she heard the earsplitting splash a few seconds later.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Janice

She put out a finger and shook it at the camera.

"Little Greggy, you pushed this girl WAY over the edge; you got what you deserved!"

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives & Classic Cabooses)

The Legendary Locomotives were determined to keep on running until they reached the end. Luckily for them, the end was closer than it seemed. In only an hour, they burst through an opening in a cave wall and were met with a blindingly bright light—two lights, really. There was an elevator with two bright front lights just sitting there in the center of the cave, and when they looked up, they could see that it lead up into the ceiling. A moment later, Chris came out from behind the elevator and spread out his arms, declaring,

"Hello, everyone! It looks like you've just won the challenge!"

A great sigh erupted from their entire group, and they fell to the ground, gasping for breath, dropping the stolen supplies all over. A minute later, the Classic Cabooses came hurtling into the cave, and they nearly all passed out as well.

"Oh no! They beat us here! AGAIN!" cried Greg, sinking to his knees.

Chris, who faced both exhausted teams at once, gestured towards the winning team on his right and said,

"For the third time in a row, the Legendary Locomotives have come out as the winning team! That means another three days of first class service for you guys and gals!"

A weak but thankful cheer came from their numbers as Chris turned to look disappointingly at the Classic Cabooses.

"Wow. Just wow."

And so he stopped it at that.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

While the Legendary Locomotives went to the first class car to relax for the third time in a row, the Classic Cabooses filed into the mediocre dining car, seating themselves at the splintery tables. Chris walked forward and then stopped at the two racks that held each team's coal heads. He didn't pause for even a moment before beginning his routine speech.

"Classic Cabooses, I am so surprised at all of you. You're due for a comeback, you know." he said, shaking his head. "But now you must choose which one of your members will be taking the Hop of Shame. After tonight's Burning Ceremony only nine of you will remain; vote wisely."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Sammy

For a moment, he looked at his choices. On the sheet in front of him was each member's face. Sitting on top of the sheet was a red stamp, which he would use to pick the loser. After deciding, he lifted the stamp and pressed it down on Kelsey's face, creating a red flame where it landed.

"Sorry, Kelsey, but I seriously bonked my head when you let go and I fell. This headache stinks!"

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Janice

Without hesitation, she picked up the flame stamp and smashed it on Greg's skinny, irritated face.

"That boy is really getting on my nerves. All day and all night he complains, and that's it! If a word comes out of his mouth, it has to be about how crappy he thinks he feels."

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Jonah

"Normally, I'd vote off Kelsey for delaying us, but I'm choosing Greg instead." he said, stamping the flame onto Greg's picture. "For the record, I do NOT sound like that when I game!"

He was still a bit ticked off about Greg's little imitation of him while he and Megan were going against each other earlier.

* * *

_Confessional_

(Classic Cabooses)

Adrian

"Everything was going fine until Kelsey got a bit of mud on her face, and then she freaked out and delayed us. That's the reason we didn't get going from out of the cave AND the reason they took our stuff. Sorry, little missy, but you've gotta head home." he murmured, pressing the flame pattern into her flawless face.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Once the votes had been counted, Chris came back into the dining car and stood by the coal rack.

"The ballot is finished, and I have the results. The person who does not receive their coal head must immediately walk down the hall to your left and take the Hop of Shame, exiting the Pain Train, and leaving Total Drama National Tour forever. I will now call out your names and give you yours coal heads..."

He reached up and picked Clarence's head from the rack, tossing it to the real Clarence.

"Clarence."

Then he took Dylan's head and threw that one.

"Dylan."

Then came several others, all of whom found themselves smiling with relief.

"Janice, Adrian, Beatrice, Jonah, and Megan."

Now only Sammy, Kelsey, and Greg's heads remained on the shelf. Chris lifted a hand and paused as if he were inspecting each one, and then plucked Sammy's small coal head from the wooden rack, passing it to the little teen.

"Sammy."

Greg and Kelsey looked at each other—Greg, covered in mud all down his back, and Kelsey, who was covered in mud from head to toe all over her beautiful body. Neither of them wanted to leave, and the odds were even now.

"The final coal head goes to..." he said slowly.

A long moment of dramatic atmosphere occurred, holding everyone, especially Kelsey and Greg, in a tense stillness. Ten precious seconds of suspense passed by, and Chris finally reached up, took Greg's head from the rack, and chucked it at its owner, who got hit harshly with it for the second time of the competition.

"Greg."

Kelsey gave a whimper, tears bubbling in her eyes as she watched her coal head become part of the fiery furnace. She stood up, wiped her face, and managed to keep her soiled head high even as she walked towards her inevitable fate. They followed her out the door and into the hallway; Chris wrenched the sliding steel door open, revealing the passing flatlands that rolled on by. Kelsey took one look back at her soon-to-be-ex-teammates, gave them a surprisingly pretty smile underneath all that grime, and said,

"Well, at least I wasn't the first to go, right? Sorry my fear of germs cost us the win."

With that, she spun around on her heel and leaped rather gracefully out the door. Kelsey the Classic Caboose disappeared, it seemed, forever. Chris turned to look at the group of nine losers that stood next to him and said,

"Well, it's been a long, sleep-depriving day, so I suggest you all get to bed."

This sounded like a better idea than any, and with no hesitation whatsoever, the Classic Cabooses went to the left hallway, entered their rooms, and prepared for a good, restoring sleep... Well, at least as long as they could sleep before Chris woke them up extremely early.

Chris was right; they were definitely due for a comeback.

* * *

(Legendary Locomotives)

They had already gathered around inside the first class car; lifting their drinks and clinking them together, they declared,

"To the Legendary Locomotives!"

"And may we never lose a challenge for the rest of the competition!" added Fred.

* * *

(Classic Cabooses)

Little did they know, Clarence had also gathered around his teammates for a something more like a meeting. They needed to figure out how to break their losing streak, and they'd do so as a team. They all sat in a circle in the dining car, the tables pushed together to form what looked more like a crooked oval, but was sufficient for their needs.

"Okay, everyone! I know that spirits have been down lately, but we have got to get together and pull through the next challenge as winners."

With that motivation to start off the meeting, they started discussing the best way to finally win the next challenge. After hours of debating, they were finally able to come up with something that would really get them to the top. It was time for an epic comeback, and they had one all planned out.

Now all they had to do was wait.


End file.
